


Walk with me

by Yo_Hello_Greetings



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Abuse, Alternate Universe - Medieval, Blood and Injury, Comedy, Consensual Sex, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, I promise, Jealousy, Jesse is a good boy, Jesse is so clingy, Physical Abuse, Sad, Slavery, Slow Burn, Violence, Werewolf Jesse McCree, all this abuse is towards Jesse, but it gets better, not from reader, puppy Jesse, trust me - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-01
Updated: 2019-01-24
Packaged: 2019-02-09 07:24:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 44,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12882966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yo_Hello_Greetings/pseuds/Yo_Hello_Greetings
Summary: It takes place in the medieval era, where monsters are a real thing. Reader is a hunter who arrives to this town looking for her next target, and in her way to find a place to stay, she comes across a peculiar inn with a surprise in it; they have a captive werewolf used as a slave.





	1. Chapter 1

You were walking down the cobblestone wet streets. At this time in the morning in the center of the town, there were a lot of people out doing their business, mostly working to earn their bread. In the town the monster problem wasn't an actual problem, as they didn't get near it, not so much at least. But you needed a place to stay at night, and there were no inns but here, in the town, you'll have to walk. Anyway, it’s better like this, so you wouldn't have to worry about safety in the place where you would rest. Or at least not so much.

Walking down the street, you turned the corner, when suddenly

"OH-... boy"

A big, tall and buffed man was naked, sitting in the cold street, smiling at your sudden fright.

"Hello pretty" he said smiling. But something was off, apart from the fact that he was naked, all his features looked human, but you were too much experimented in your job to know that he wasn't that. With a quick movement of your hand, you took out your right revolver with silver bullets, and pointed it to him.

He suddenly became terrified and lifted his hands in a signal of vulnerability, and said.

"No-no, wait, I'm just... I'm just working here, you don't have to shoot… I'm just working here...please..."

 _Working here_? You took a better look at him. His naked body showed marks of bruises and scars from diverse origins, probably bullets, knives and burn marks. But what stood out the most was a big metal collar tight in his neck, what appeared to be a herm sprenger, and a chain that connected it to a post in the entrance of the shop.

He was a werewolf. You knew that since the moment you saw him. And he was trapped here. "working". It was a popular trend these last years. They would try and catch a creature, without killing it, and they would use them to make money with them, either exposing them in shows, or making use of their abilities to help them in their jobs.

You stood there a few more seconds, with him looking at you with wide eyes and his heart racing in fear. Finally, you put down your gun and put it away again.

He sighed relieved and looked aside. It looked like he wasn't feeling like flirting anymore.

"If you are looking for a inn to spend the cold night" he started saying "don't think it twice and try Gaban's Inn, the best of the best".

He spoke with a monotonous voice, like he's been reciting the same thing over and over again. You look up and read a sign in front of the shop. _Gaban's inn_. Hm, just what you were looking for. You looked back down to him, he was still looking aside with his chin resting in his hand. He looked bored and kind of... sad. Well, it was normal, you kind of felt sorrow for him, it had to be humiliating. Also, they probably abused him.

"Is that your job? Advertising the inn?"

"Among other things, yeah" he said still in the same position.

"Is that a silver collar?"

He scoffed sarcastically "Darling, why do you think I'm still here?"

"You look cold, you should put something on."

"I'm doing fine, thank you." But the goosebumps in his skin told otherwise. He stayed there, still without moving.

You entered the inn, it looked like a normal tavern, with tables and chairs and a bar with drinks. You walked right to the bar where a woman was cleaning the counter.

 _"_ Hello dear! How can I serve you? _"_

 _"_ Hello, I was looking for a place to stay some days."

 _"_ Say no more! We have the best rooms in town! _"_

 _"_ Ok... how much is the night?"

 _"_ Just 7 coins! _"_

"Alright, that'll be fine _."_

"The rooms are upstairs, I'll walk you to yours _."_

"Thank you."

You followed the landlady upstairs, and before leaving behind the first floor you looked at the entrance of the inn. It was him still there, of course, he hadn't moved a bit, still with that apathic mood. You came into the second floor, where the landlady showed you your room, she was about to leave when you stopped her.

"Um, what's with that werewolf out there?"

"Oh! Did you notice? It's our treasure! You must know how popular these creatures are these days. And we got nothing less than a werewolf! You know how they are, right? strong, full of energy... and with a high libido" she raised her eyebrows to you in a suggestive way. You felt disgust for that woman. “Well then, I'll leave you in peace already, ask me for whatever you need, I'll be more than thankful to help.”

 _"_ Ok... thank you.”

You entered your room and put you bag in the floor, and lied down in bed with your arms crossed behind your hand, and sighed.

You always appreciated these moments. It was nice to be alone in a room to rest. It was silent, but you supposed that would change once the night fell, when the tavern would get full of drunk clients. The room was also kind of clean, and that was really weird to find. You breathed deep and stayed there, just resting, when your thoughts went back to the werewolf in the entrance.

You actually felt sorrow for him. It's true that you have killed many of his kind before, but not all werewolves were the same. Honestly, among all monsters, werewolves were your favorite, they were basically big puppies, big puppies that could easily tear you up, of course, but mostly they just wanted to play and fuck. They were not a real danger to humans. But of course, it has always to be those who would get advantage from their force to dominate and cause havoc to the humans. And because of their fault, humans would become hostile to whichever werewolf they would see, and that only caused werewolves to hate humans. It was sad that, just because of the fault of some of each kind, it had to pay all the innocent others.

You sighed, _Life is unfair,_  you thought.

You decided to go for a walk to see the town and look for information about your target. They offered a reward of 3000 coins for the one that captured the ghoul that had been haunting the streets of this town the last month. This ghoul had to be the real thing, as people have told he had already killed 3 of his hunters, a total of 7 people in this month. 3000 coins was a good amount of money... you were confident in your abilities as a hunter, you had to try.

When you came down, you saw the werewolf remaining in the same position you left him. You got out the inn and passed in front of him, and he followed your movements with his eyes, still sitting like that.

Ok, it was time to focus, you had a ghoul to catch.

But unfortunately, the day almost ended, and you got nothing, no one knew anything, they only knew when someone was killed by the ghoul because their corpse would appear somewhere in town made a mess. It wasn't a very pleasant view, witness say.

It was really dark and you couldn't see very well, but at least there in the town there were houses and taverns everywhere and the light from them would reach the streets. You found your way back to the inn, and from the distance you saw the werewolf still out the shop, but he was accompanied this time.

Three drunk men were stumbling in front of him, spilling his drinks all over the place with each wobble. When you got closer you saw that they were talking to him, or taunting him, most probably.

You saw the werewolf showing his pointing fangs and snarling at them, like an angry wolf.

“ _d_ onnt grouwl at me you filthey dog” he said, and spat in his face and spilled his drink in his head. The werewolf punched the glass of beer the man was grabbing, which fell into the ground and broke into multiple pieces.

“How daare you you disgsgusting shit!” he screamed and started kicking the helpless werewolf, the two friends had joined in the kick session, and the poor werewolf couldn’t do anything but cover himself with his arms.

You were about to stop them when the landlady from this morning came out the inn.

 _"_ What's happening here? Why are you kicking our pet? _"_

 _"_ He attackked us!” said one of them “Look at the-mmess he made!"

 _"_ WHAT?"

She turned to the werewolf lying in the street.

 _"_ HOW. MANY. TIMES. HAVE I. TOLD YOU." she said each word with a kick that landed in different parts in his body "NOT. TO MESS. WITH THE CLIENTS! DUMBASS?! _"_ some of them in his neck, where the spikes of the herm sprenger buried in his flesh. When she had finished, she sighed because of the effort she just made, and said:

 _"_ Gentlemen; why don’t we come in again and keep drinking in this so joyful night? _"_

They all chanted their agreement and came back to the tavern in the inn. The werewolf stayed lying in the street, breathing difficulty, coughing and bleeding, he smacked a punch to the ground and let out and angry growl. All the noises from before were far now. You got closer to him and kneeled in front of him, you tried to touch his face, but with a really strong slap he pulled your hand away from his face, and snarled aggressive at you.

The strong slap had made you fall with your ass in the ground, and you grabbed with your hand the hand that he had just slapped. You stayed there, staring at him, with a surprised look in your face, then, he realized who you were. But you changed your expression to a neutral one, and stood up.

 _"_ N-no, wait! _"_  he said but you ignored his words and entered the tavern. You went straight to the bar and sat there. The landlady served you a beer jar without you asking, but you just accepted it.

 _"_ So... you started, where does he sleep?”

 _"_ Who?”

"The werewolf.”

"Ah! That, it usually sleeps in a cage here in the basement."

"In a cage, wow" you said, looking at the glass in your hand.

"Yes, we take seriously the safety of our clients, so nothing to worry about"

"Uh-huh..." you said casually.

"Of course, when he is not doing services."

"Doing services?"

"Remember when I told you werewolves had high libido?"

_Oh_

_"_ That they were strong, and they were full of energy, so they can-"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it."

 _"_ That's it. But unfortunately, it’s not something very popular yet, there is still more people that find disgusting having sex with such a being, but there is always some of us who can appreciate a werewolves’ charms” she said laughing. You felt sick, you hated that woman. “Anyway, with its appearance tonight I don’t believe any client would want anything from it, we have to try though."

"…How much is it?"

"Oh! Are you perhaps interested ? "she asked with a suggestive tone again."

"I don't know, I'm just asking."

"25 coins."

"25?! It's only 7 to stay in the inn."

"Werewolves are exotic beings, we have to charge its value.”

 _And that's why you treat him like shit,_ you thought.

You sighed and finished your beer, the landlady was about to give you another one, but you stopped her before that. You paid your drink and went upstairs, not before giving a last glance to the werewolf in the entrance. He was sat again in his corner, leaning curled in the doorframe, looking crestfallen. 

You stayed in your room for a couple of more hours, until the chanting of the people beneath you smothered with time. Suddenly, you heard a knock in your door, and you answered, the landlady opened the door, accompanied by the werewolf.

"So, did you think it better?”

She was apparently asking the clients for real. 

You took a few seconds to think, you looked at him, he had a frown in his face, but looked jaded at the same time. 

"Ok, I'll take him."

She looked happy, unlike him, who looked at you surprised, and his frown grow bigger, and then refused to look at any side but the ground. 

"Alright, here you have,” she said, dragging him by the metal leash, she gave it to you, “when you are finished you can lock the leash in this metal pole,” she said pointing at the farthest corner of the room, “that way he'll be far from you and you'll sleep safer. You also have a silver knife and rod, in case you need to use them.” She said, depositing them in your bed.

"………Alright"

"Have fun." she told you, and left you alone with the werewolf.”

You looked at him, and his face showed angriness, but resigned to his destiny. 

You released your hold on the leash and headed towards your bed where you sat. You looked at him, standing in there, looking at the floor. 

"What are you doing there. Come here."

 

 He doubted for a few more seconds, and then, resigned, walked towards your bed. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was looking for a right word to describe a simple metal collar, and I came across this "herm sprenger" thing. IT'S HIDEOUS. I just discovered this exists and I hate it.  
> That said, I hated it so much that I considered it was right to include it in the story :)
> 
> That said again, how much more should I make Jesse suffer? :)  
> (I hope you suffered reading this as I suffered writing it) <3
> 
> ♡♡♡ Feedback is always appreciated ♡♡♡


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many Thanks to beta reader MikoHayashi for checking the chapter!

“Kneel.” You said when he was in front of you.

He did so, and looked uneasy at the tools on your bed. However, your hands moved to the other side next of him, where there was a wooden bucket half full of water. You took a wet cloth and brought it to his head. But, instinctively, he pulled away.

He regretted it the moment he did, because he thought that that could earn him a punishment. However, you didn’t move; your hand still in mid-air.

“It’s ok,” you cooed, “Look, I know werewolves heal faster than humans but…I just…thought that…” You sighed hastily. “I’m just going to clean your wounds.”

He looked at you suspiciously, but got closer again.

You brought the wet cloth to his forehead and cleaned the blood with which the origin was unknown to you. You rinsed the piece of cloth and took it to a wound on his right cheek. He hissed when it touched his skin, but didn’t move. You carefully cleaned again around the cut. Fortunately, it had almost healed; it wasn’t probably going to leave a mark. You also cleaned his other cheek, which didn’t have any wound but was dirty following the dry blood on his nose. To finish with his face after rinsing again the cloth, you brought it to a cut on his lip.

 _Those men… such beasts._ The beating from earlier was the one that made all this mess on his face. The kicks were that intense they even broke the skin on his cheek and lip, probably something inside his nose too. And a werewolf’s skin is much tougher than a human. You finished with his face, cleaning his chin of dry blood and dirt. Now, you went for the real thing. You looked at his neck. His collar was covered in a mix of fresh and dry blood and so was his neck, which had marks that reached his chest.

“This is going to hurt…” You sighed, placing your hands on the collar. He hadn’t stopped looking at you since you began cleaning his wounds, but you were more focused on your job. With a little bit of force, you pulled up the collar, so you could see his wounds better. He groaned a little, but remained silent after that. You looked at the wound; a line of bleeding points adorned his neck. They were still fresh, the silver had not let it heal, and this one was probably going to leave a mark. You cleaned again with more care this time, trying to provoke him the least pain possible.

Once you were done, you told him to wait and went to where your few belongings were, looking inside your bag and taking out some gauze. You came back to where the werewolf was waiting for you. He looked at your hands as you were getting closer, always wary of any danger, but he didn’t find anything to worry about. You knelt next to him and started binding up the gauze around his neck. When you finished, you pulled down his collar, which didn’t touch his skin because of the gauze. Finally, you admired your job. He was looking quite better know, except for all that dry blood on his chest. You got the wet cloth and started rubbing the dry blood off his chest until you realized you were reaching to a more intimate zone. You stopped dead and stood there a few short seconds. You cleared your throat and threw the cloth into the wooden bucket.

“Clean the rest yourself, you are covered in dirt.” You huffed, standing up swiftly.

 _Well, it’s normal_ , he thought, _it would be nasty to get laid with someone so dirty_. He cleaned off the blood from his chest and did the same with the dirt on his arms. “Well, at least I’m having a bath today without getting wet in the rain”. He looked at you.

You were looking for something in the only closet the room had and you got some blankets and brought them to where you were supposed to tie him up once you were finished.

 _What is she doing?_ He thought while cleaning his legs. You bent and extended the blankets in the wooden floor, one on top of another.

When he had finished cleaning all his body, he just waited there, sitting, looking at you. You had put some blankets in the floor trying to make an improvised mattress, and stood up. You went back to where he was, and asked:

“You done?”

He nodded and waited for orders.

“Up”. He stood up and you lead him by his leash at the pole, and tied him up there.

Then you went to your bed and took the silver rod, which caused him to enter into a state of alarm, but you threw the cane to the floor, like if it was trash. However, you took the knife and swung it in front of you, making sure he saw you with it, and put it on the nightstand next to your bed. It was a way to tell him, I’ll be prepared, so you don’t even think about it. He understood perfectly.

“Good night.” You yawned and lay in your bed.

 _What? Wait, what?_ He was so confused. He didn’t know what was going on but he didn’t know if he should ask or not.

You were about to blow out the candles when he stopped you.

“Wait!” You looked at him, waiting for what he was going to say. But he didn’t say anything, so you were about to blow out the candles once more when he stopped you again.

“Wait!”

“What?” You sound irritated.

“Um… aren’t we… are we not going to, um…”

“No.” He looked at you surprised. “What, disappointed?”

“No.”

“Hm, thought your kind was keen on it.”

“If we are forced to, what’s the point?”

You shrugged, “Hm, sounds fair. Good night.”

“Wait!”

“What???” You asked, anger rising slightly your voice.

“So why did you bring me here?”

“Look, I just did it, so you don’t sleep in that stupid cage, alright?”

“Really?” he asked, overwhelmed.

“Yes, really. Good night.”

You said, and blow out the candles.

He was confused. Pleasantly confused. He didn’t expect anything like this. He was so used to the abuse of the human that never in the life he would have predicted something like this.

“Thank you.” He said to you.

“It’s fine.” You answered from your bed.

He lay in his “bed”. _Oh yes,_ he thought _. How long has it been since I lay on a dry floor? It is even soft and warm_...

He was feeling so thankful for this night, but…

You thought about your actions. Were you being too easy on him? He looked all helpless now, but he was still a werewolf. You were too experienced in your job to know about these things. They may appear human, they may appear nice, but their instincts always prevailed. It didn’t make you very confident to be sleeping in the same room as a werewolf, even if he was tied up. But he looked so helpless… ugh, this is how accidents happen. You tried to sleep, and you tried, and tried, but…

“Can you please stop??”

“I’m sorry, I’m just making myself comfortable.”

“So, hurry up and go to sleep.”

“I’m trying!”

“Just hurry up!”

He moved some more in his bed, and then the room fell silent again.

 _Finally_ , you thought. You actually found it kind of cute, he was like a dog circling around before lying down, you always found that funn-

“Are you fucking for real?!?” you asked, irritated again.

“I’m sorry!”

You stood up and went to him. It was dark, but the moonlight that filtered through the window made it easy to see in the dark. When he saw you coming to him he became suddenly worried of what you might do to him, but you bent on top of him and started stretching the blankets below him. He froze as he realized how you were leaning yourself over his body, making his bed. He froze because of the contact, the way you act as if he wasn’t disgusting, as if he wasn’t dangerous, at how soft and warm your skin was…

You suddenly stood up and went with decisive steps to your bed and took a blanket from it, you came back to him and throwed it on top of him. Because he didn’t move after doing this, you scoffed and exclaimed “Do I have to do everything?” and bent down and started to tuck him in.

 _Whaaaaat is happening??_ He thought, _Thanks god for this opportunity!_

You stood again and went to you bed, took your pillow and came back to the pole. You raised his head and put the pillow below.

“I don’t want to hear ANY more noise.” You huffed and went back to your bed. “I’m sure you are way more comfortable than me now.”

After the past events, he felt like he could be more himself with you now, and so he dared to say: “You could always come to sleep with me, then”.

“Ha, you must be dreaming if you think I would get in bed with a werewolf. I’m not that stupid.”

“I wouldn’t attack you”

“Hm, sure. Anyway, goodnight.”

“I wouldn’t.” He reassured you. “Good night. And thank you again…”

“Alright…”

You thought it was going to be more difficult to sleep, because of the fact of having a werewolf in your same room. But you were wrong, as just a few seconds later you were already asleep.

A few knocks in your door shook you off from your dreams. You were still sleepy and didn’t know too much of what was going on. Another few knocks and the voice of a woman brought you to reality.

_Oh no, the landlady._

You hurried up and went to where the man was still sleeping and shook him to wake him up. But he didn’t wake up. God, such a heavy sleeper. You shook him harder until he suddenly opened his eyes wide and, without thinking, he snarled at you. Of course, he then realized who you were and what he had done. He was going to apologize when you took the pillow from below him which made him hit his head on the blankets.

“Don’t. you. grrr. at. me”. You said hitting him with the pillow. “And hurry the fuck up, the landlady is outside the room waiting.”

“I-I’m going!” you said to her.

“Is everything ok?” She asked.

“Yes! Just getting dressed!”

He had stood up, so you could take away the blankets and he threw the pillow at your bed. You were going to open the door when you realized you hadn’t actually got dressed yet, and the man told you:

“Hey, the gauze!” You looked at him.

“Do you think they have heal already? At least a bit?” You asked him while getting dressed.

“Probably they have.”

“Ok, so take them off.”

When he was done, you hurried up to open the door.

“Good morning!” She told you, as happy as always.

“Good morning.” You answered.

“So… how did you spent the night?”

“…” _Oh_. “Ah, yeah, awesome”

“Right??” _Right?? Did that mean… oh, of course_. You looked at him, and when he noticed your gaze on him, he looked at the ground.

“Oh?” she exclaimed “You are… clean.” she said, referring to, of course, the werewolf, and looked at you in search of answers.

“Oh, it’s just that, he was so covered in dirt, that… uhh I just…” You shrugged.

“Oh, I understand, would be disgusting to get laid with it like that right?” She laughed, and only she.

“…Yeah…”

“Well then, I’ll be taking it away now.”

“Hm…”

She unlocked him from the pole and dragged him behind her. He turned back while leaving the place and saw you looking at him. He waved to you without the landlady seeing it. You doubted a moment, but waved back to him. He smiled and turned back, following the woman.

You sighed.

_Well now._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you say? Jesse is a little better now <3
> 
> Btw, Jesse's human form is like a real human, like we all know him, hairy and with his beard ❤ and when he transforms he's like a normal wolf but bigger ❤
> 
> ♡♡♡ Feedback is always appreciated ♡♡♡


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many many thanks to my friend Bojevnik for being my beta reader this time!! ♡♡

After a while, you got down and went straight to the bar, of course giving a quick look at the man at the entrance.

You asked for breakfast and you were served in a few seconds. You had a glass of milk, bread and cheese. You were so hungry, and started eating your food. Then, it hit you; would he be hungry? He’d probably be. You kept eating your food while looking at the entrance, seeing how he talked to the people who passed by the inn. Some of them ignored him, some of them looked at him with disgust. You were getting tired of that shit.

You took the remaining food and went outside to sit in front of him.

“Hi.” you greeted him.

“Hey.” he said smiling. He tried to look at your eyes, but his gaze alternated between your face and the food you brought with you.

“Do they even feed you?”

“Uhhhh…” he looked a little embarrassed that you were asking so. You probably caught him staring at your food. “Let’s say… they don’t let me die from starvation.”

“Hm, thought so,” You pointed at the food in front of you. “Go on,” But he didn’t move. “C’mon, you can eat it,” You didn’t have to tell him again. He grabbed the bread and started devouring it, and then did the same with the cheese; he bit one and then the other.

“Hey slow down, you are going to choke on the food.”

But he was too focused in eating, until he actually choked.

“Hahaha, told you,” he coughed and drank all the milk. He laughed, a little bit embarrassed and continued eating. You were sitting there in front of him, observing how he ate. Just a few minutes later, he had already finished. He looked so happy now.

“Are you satisfied?” you asked.

He thought about the question and a few seconds later he answered,

“Yes! Thank you,” but you were not convinced.

You sighed, “I don’t even know why I ask,” you said and stood up, taking the dishes from the ground and going back inside.

He was worried that he might have said something wrong. He never knew what you were thinking, you always tried to maintain a straight face; whether you were annoyed, disgusted, or happy. A minute later, you came back with the same food but in double portion this time. He looked at you with wide eyes.

“C’mon, it’s for you. Even for a grown man this wouldn’t be enough, and let’s not talk about a werewolf.”

His eyes glowed with happiness and he started eating again, this time a bit slower.

“Thwnak you,” he said with his mouth full of food.

“It’s alright,” you simply said.

“No,” he swallowed, “really, thank you so much, you…” he sighed, “you don’t even know what this means to me.”

“It’s ok,” you said smiling.

You kept looking at him until he had finished.

“I cannot express how happy I am right now.”

“Don’t worry, your face says it all,” You said, bending down to take the dishes. You waved at him and went back into the inn.

You had work to do today, you have to find the ghoul and collect the reward. You didn’t want to spend more days than needed in this town. Time is gold.

“Bye.”

“Are you leaving??” he said alarmed.

“For a couple of hours, like yesterday, maybe.”

“Oh…” he looked more relaxed but not entirely happy, and stared at the ground. You knelt in front of him.

“Do you have a name?” you asked.

He looked kind of confused, “Well… yeah...”

“But?” you asked. “Oh, if you don’t want to tell me it’s fine.” you said comprehensible.

“No, no, it’s not that,” he said, and you waited. “… My name is… Jesse McCree.”

You raised your eyebrows and smiled, “Weird.” He smiled too.

“What’s yours?” he asked.

“(y/n/s).”

“(y/n/s),” He repeated to himself.

“Well then, see you, Jesse.”

“Bye… (y/n).”

You walked down the street, the fresh smell of bread in the air. What should you do now? You didn’t know how to start. No one knew anything, only witness of the corpses. Nothing useful. You arrived at the center of the town and leaned on a cold stone wall and sheltered yourself, it was so cold now in the middle of autumn. You looked up at the grey skies. Looks like it’s going to rain. Suddenly, you heard a scream, and a few people running to where the noise came. You did too. As you got closer, one of them said:

“It’s the ghoul again!.”

 _The ghoul? Well this is perfect._ _Maybe he left some clues on the corpse_.

You made your way among the people and reached where the corpse laid on the street.

"What the-"

The body in front of you were covered with multiple deep cuts, gashes and lacerations in all his body. He was laying on top of a pool of blood, which reached your boots. You knelt next to him, and opened one of the wounds with your bare fingers to examine it better, but a big hand pulled you back and someone screamed at you.

“What are you doing?? You are profaning the corpse!”

“Um- but he’s dead,” you said, and that only made him angrier and pushed you away from them. You saw from behind him how the people took away the dead body. But it was okay, although you would have wanted to examine the body better, it was enough with what you saw to realize that it wasn’t the work of a ghoul.

The body was full of cuts and slashes; it was made with a white weapon, a knife, or a sword. Those weren’t wounds from a ghoul at all, you were sure about that. Ghouls were humanoid beasts that ate human flesh, but they were not smart, they were only guided by instincts and would attack with just the weapons that their body would provide, like claws and teeth. Their saliva is acid too, which would make the flesh melt.

The corpse wasn’t eaten, nor it showed melted wounds or claw marks. Just cuts. The only similarity was that they both acted at night.

_Then what’s going on?_

You saw the man who had pushed you entered a tavern, and you followed him there. You went in and asked for a drink.

 _Ok, so it’s not a ghoul, the wounds in the body says so. But what kind of monster would provoke such wounds?_ You went over the list of monsters in your head, but none came up.

 _Why did I think it was a ghoul in the first place? Hm, that was just what the reward, rumors and people have said_. You just accepted their words; you didn’t think they would be wrong. _Haven’t they seen a ghoul before? A ghoul’s victim even?_

_Oh_

You remembered this was a town where monsters don’t usually get near it. _Maybe they haven’t seen a ghoul attack until these events? Probably, that would explain it. Why did they start calling it a ghoul though?_

_Anyway, that’s not important, the real question here is what did it, or who did it... what if… it was a human?_

"For the kind of person he was, he is better dead."

You got a little closer to them and tried to listen to their whispers.

“What do you mean? I knew he didn’t have very good reputation but…”

“I heard he made his daughter’s life miserable. She had to be in charge of the house and also bring money while taking care of her two little brothers, while he was out there getting drunk all day, spending money in beers and wines. Such a pig.”

 _Hmmm_ , you thought _. It would make sense that who killed him was a human. But who? Her? But what about the other 7? No, it doesn’t make sense_.

You sighed. _I’m in the beginning again_. I don’t get it. But what you knew for sure is that it wasn’t a ghoul. That’s a start.

“Excuse me,” you called out to the woman and man,” what was the name of the dead man’s daughter?”

The man looked at you suspiciously and told you.

“Aren’t you the rat that I kicked out before? You are not from here, aren’t you?”

“I just-”

“Go look in another place.”

 _Alright, fuck you_. You stood up and got out of the bar.

You tried to look for information about the dead man’s daughter for the rest of the day, but nobody knows, or they didn't want to tell you. You were on your way back to the tavern when you saw a shop that caught your attention, and after thinking for a few seconds, you decided to enter.

 

In the tavern, Jesse was in his corner, bored as always, when he caught a familiar smell. He was about to stand up when a man stopped in front of him.

"Do something funny, dog," he said looking down at him.

"Fuck off," he said while trying to look behind the man from his position.

"What did you just say?!" said the angry man. He grabbed him by the collar, making him stand a little. He was holding a knife and pressing it to Jesse's neck, while he growled at him. Until you appeared in that moment and pushed back the man with force, making Jesse fall back to his position.

"What the fuck?” He said threatening you with the knife. "Do you know what you just di- alright, alright pal, it's ok, it's ok," he changed his words once he saw you pointing at him with your revolver. You gestured him to clear off, and he obeyed.

You threw a piece of cloth to Jesse. "Cover yourself." You slipped down next to him and sighed, resting your head on the wall.

Jesse was pleasantly surprised at how you took a sit next to him so easily.

"I knew you were close," he said smiling at you.

"Yeah? How come?" You said, with your eyes closed and your head still resting on the wall.

"I smelled you."

You looked at him while his eyes were on you.

You laughed slightly and went back to your position.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"This _ghoul,_ " you said, making air quotes with your fingers, "killed again."

"Yes, I know."

"Do you?" you asked, interested.

"Of course, everybody knows it, this is not a big town."

"You wouldn't know by any chance who the dead man was, right?"

"Yes, he's name was Arnott, he was the old owner of a bakery, I don't know where is it though, but he became an alcoholic and spent all his days out in taverns drinking while his daughter had to be in charge of the house with her little brothers and work, so that they have money. Tough situation."

You looked at him astonished.

"What?"

"How do you know all of that?"

"Honey, you wouldn't even imagine all the things you get to find out sitting here all day".

You laughed at what he said, and he felt his heart pump a little hearing you laugh so genuinely.

"Do you know the kids name?"

"I know the girl's name is Lovedaia."

"Lovedaia... hmm..." What would you find out if you get to meet her?

"Why are you asking?"

"Do you know why I came to this town?"

He shrugged.

"I suppose you know there is this ghoul around the town, and that it has killed over 7 people, in which 3 of them were hunters..." he nodded. "and, that there is a reward for those who hunt it. Well, I'm after that reward."

The people who passed in front of you would occasionally glance at the two of you sitting on the ground, but you were too busy talking about the crime to care.

"Oh... but why do you want to talk to the family?"

"I saw the corpse myself this morning. It had nothing but cuts everywhere."

"Cuts?? Not scratches or bites?" You denied with your head. "That's not from a ghoul."

"Exactly."

He stared at you in realization.

"What is it then...?"

"That's what I'm trying to find out."

You two stayed there in silence, until your stomach started to grumble.

"Are you hungry?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ♡♡♡ Feedback is always appreciated ♡♡♡


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU SO MUCH BOJEVNIK FOR DOING AN AWESOME WORK AS MY BETA READER <3

Minutes later, you came back with lots of food and placed them on the ground. "I asked the landlady if you could sit inside but she said it would give a bad image to the tavern."

"Oh, how come?" He said unimpressed, without smiling. "Don't you feel embarrassed being here? Eating on the street next to me?"

"Why wowuldd I?" You said with your mouth full.

Jesse smiled at your comment.

"What?" You asked, swallowing.

"I'm just so happy that you trust me." He said, smiling.

"What? No, don't misunderstand. I don't trust you."

His expression changed completely.

"But...you are... sitting here with me and, you took care of me and-"

"That's it, I only took care of you and I'm sitting here because you don't show any danger to me, but don’t think I have forgot who you are. I won't let my guard down".

"I told you I wouldn't attack you."

"That's just your word, nothing guarantees me you are not lying."

"I'm not!"

"I'm just telling you that's just your word!"

He gave you an irritated look and looked away. He huffed sullenly and started to eat the food you brought.

"Thank you for the food." He said shortly.

"Ok." You said in the same way.

All the good ambient from before had vanished, and there only remained a silence between you two. Jesse was feeling bitter now, but he guessed you were right. Although he wouldn’t attack you, you had no way to know if that was true or not. But he wish you would believe him.

You had already finished eating, but he didn't. There was still food on the dishes. You thought of leaving but you didn't want to leave him with all that food there, people would probably bully him. You hugged your knees and rested your chin on top of them, looking away from Jesse.

He noticed your actions.

When he was done eating, you stood up and collected all the dishes. You muttered a weak "bye" to him, and although he answered you, you didn't wait for his reply and entered the tavern again right away.

You went to your room and made yourself comfortable. You had many things to think about and this werewolf was making you feel unnecessary things. You slapped both of your cheeks and sat on the bed.

"So, what I need to know next is: if all the victims showed the same wounds, what or who could have cause those wounds and if there is some kind of relation between all of them." You said out loud, trying to put your ideas in order.

You prepared your things for tomorrow and listed out strategies in your head, when a knock on the door interrupted your thoughts.

"Come in!" It was of course, the landlady and Jesse. She was early tonight. Maybe she thought about asking you first as you were probably the only one who had showed interest in him, at least lately.

"Yes." You simply said. She reminded you about the knife, rod, pole and everything she said yesterday before she left you alone again with the werewolf.

He wasn't using the piece of cloth you had given to him to cover himself, the landlady probably threw it away so you avoided looking at him. Without saying anything, you took all the blankets from yesterday and threw it onto the floor next to the pole where he was tied. You went back to your bed and continued looking at the map of the town you got this morning.

He did his bed and sat there.

Several minutes had passed until he couldn’t keep silent anymore and asked shyly, "Are you angry?"

"No, I'm not."

"You look like you are."

"I'm not."

"So why are you not that talkative as before?"

"I'm just working, now shut up."

"..."

A minute later, he spoke again. "...It looks to me that you are angry." He said whispering.

You put the map down angrily.

"Well it looks to me that you were angry too at the street before."

"No, I wasn't! I was...hurt, to be honest."

 _Oh_. That made you feel kind of guilty, but you were still annoyed.

"Look,” He started, “I know it's just my word, but I'd like to remind you that I wouldn't attack you, not after you've been so nice to me, or taking care of me or whatever you want to call it, but I really appreciate that. Now if you still don't trust me, it's fine, I'm used to it, but at least, could we just, act... like before?"

Well now, that was a full speech. That actually softened your heart a little.

You sighed.

"Ok, I'm sorry, I was feeling a little irritated back then with my own problems."

"Oh no, no, no, it's fine!" He was smiling again. That was enough for him, the fact that you were even apologizing was incredible for him.

"Oh, by the way, take this." You stood from your bed and grabbed one of your bags. You took out some underwear and pants, and threw it to him.

He picked up the clothes from the floor and exclaimed,

"Did you really buy me clothes?" He said smiling.

"Why, do you prefer staying naked?"

He didn't answer you as he was already getting dressed. He was so happy. You were truly taking care of him, you were acting so nice to someone you didn't trust.

"I would hug you so much but as you can see, I'm tied up here."

"Don't you even think about it." You said calmly, looking at your map.

"What are you doing?"

"Looking at the map."

"I can see that."

"I'm trying to locate where the bakery was, so I can find the girl. Oh, I’ve been meaning to ask, do you know anything about the other victims?"

"I remember some things." You sat in front of him on his "bed". Jesse was actually happy that you were spending time with him like this, and found it cute that the two of you are on "his bed".

"What's with that smile?"

"Oh, nothing, sorry."

"So what do you know?"

"Ok, I remember one of the victims was the mayor of the town."

"The mayor?"

"Yes, he was so corrupted."

"Do you know anything more about him?"

"No. But another one of the victims was this man, whose name I think was Carter, and I just remember he was known for being really stingy, that's just what a homeless said to me once."

"Oh..."

"Another one was a bank worker and...I don’t remember much about him...and...No, that's everything I know, sorry..."

"No, this is fine, thank you, I wouldn’t have found this much even in a month."

He felt so happy he could help you, and you even thanked him.

On the other hand, you were focused on finding the answers in your head. You were writing everything he had said to have a better look at the situation. Jesse rested his face in his hand while he looked at how you worked.

"So?" He asked once you had finished.

"Do you have anything?"

"Maybe, but I need to contact the girl, she's the only one alive that was close to one of the victims. I mean there are probably more, but I have no clue who they can be."

"So that's tomorrow’s mission."

"Tomorrow’s mission." You affirmed.

"Now what?"

"Now go to sleep." You said and went back to your bed. "Goodnight." You told him.

"...Good night..." He answered you, a little gloomy.

 _What now?_ You thought to yourself, but didn't bother too much about it.

After a few minutes, he started,

"...Can I sleep with you?"

"What? No!" You said quickly.

"Ok." he answered immediately.

_What was he thinking, did he really thought that...but...maybe... No, no, no, no. What am I thinking? I mean..UGH I don't know what to think. How do I feel? Let's be real. He doesn’t look very dangerous, he doesn’t look like he wants to attack me either. Maybe he was being honest when he tells me he is not going to hurt me. I mean, he's a werewolf and that fact alone is enough for me to be cautious, but he's a man too. He has his morals and he can think by himself and, he's cute... Wait, that's not important here. But he is though. But, (y/n), what we are trying to think about here is that-_

"Are you sure?" he asked suddenly.

"No!" You answered by reflex.

"You are not...sure?"

"No I mean, I'm sure I don’t want to."

"...Alright."

_Don’t I want to?_

You sighed. _Alright, let's roll the dice here._

You stood up and went to his spot. He doesn't fear you anymore, but he eyed your movements curiously and cautiously. His eyes were wide open when he saw you untying him.

"Really?" He said cheerfuly.

"Shut up." You said, you didn't believe you were doing this. You led him to your bed and you tied him to one of the bed’s legs.

".... _Really_?" He said unimpressed this time.

"Look, you are lucky enough that I'm letting you sleep here with me, you could at least be more grateful you-"

"Ok, ok, I get it, you're right. And... I'm not implying anything here but, you do know that I can easily break the wooden leg right?"

"Yeah, of course. A half naked man with a metal collar on his neck and a leash trying to escape a pub with all witnesses and guards outside and-"

"Ok, I see you have everything planned here."

"Of course."

You finished tying him to the bed's leg, and climbed onto it.

"I want you at the very edge of the bed with your back facing me."

He just furrowed his eyebrows at you.

"Alright?" You asked again due to his lack of reply.

He huffed. "Alright..."

The both of you stayed like that in bed.

You were positive about him not attacking you, but just in case, you took the silver knife and hid it under your side of the pillow.

As soon as you were comfortable, you noticed how he turned in his place and was now looking at the same direction at you. It irritated you a little, but at least you weren't looking at him. As long as he didn't get too touchy...

 _Oh_.

"Jesse, WHAT ARE YOU DOING NOW?!" You asked loudly as you felt his face at the back of your head.

"I'm just sniffing you."

"YEAH I can tell!"

"Then why do you ask?"

 _Irritated_. That's exactly what you were feeling. The bastard _knew_ his last comment was too much, but he couldn’t help but tease you a little.

"Just stop it."

"But you smell nice."

 _Less_ irritated. That's exactly what you were feeling.

"Just...Uhh, just behave". You didn’t even know how to act anymore.

"Hmmm...Sure thing." He said with his face buried in your hair. He wasn't touching you except with his face, and it had only been 5 minutes since the both of you laid in bed but you could already feel the warmth of having another body so close to you. And with that feeling, little by little, you were starting to vanish from reality.

_You were walking down the street, looking for this non-ghoul, the street was really crowded, and you swore the ghoul was there, within the crowd. You saw him at the corner of your eye, but when you went to look at him, he wasn't there anymore. But everytime you saw his shadow, he was closer to you, until you finally felt a hand on your shoulder. When you turned around, a humanoid form with a big mouth full of sharp teeth screamed out loud in front of your face._

You gasped and opened your eyes. You breathed heavily without moving from your position. You closed your eyes again. Nightmares were a common thing since you started this kind of job, some years ago.

You stayed there until your breathing came back to normal again. And just then, you realized your surroundings. Yes, you were on your bed in Gaban's inn. Yes, next to you was the werewolf you had agreed to sleep with that night. But what wasn't in your plan was him being totally close to you, hugging you tight from behind, his arm under yours as well as his leg between yours.

 _What the hell_. You were angry. You told him specifically not to touch you but he did. You were also embarrased. He was really really close, you were so wrapped with his body that you couldn't even move too much, and even if you did, you could easily feel his damn crotch at your lower back.

_For god's sake..._

You remembered the knife under your pillow, and even though you were not going to use it, you decided to check it but surprisingly, there was nothing there.

"What the..."

"If you're looking for the knife,” Jesse started saying with a sleepy voice, “I threw it off the bed. It was making me nervous." He finished without moving an inch.

You stretched out of the bed a little and there was the knife, laying on the floor next to the bed.

"You don't really need to use that, you know?" He said with the same sleepy voice.

You didn't answer, but stayed in the same position.

Well now you had to admit, you were really comfortable here. Not only the bed was soft, his body was warm, and the feeling of being hugged felt so nice. For the first time in a long time, you remembered how comfortable someone could feel while resting on a bed.

The room was silent, and you could not only feel but you can also hear Jesse's calm, steady breathing that was bringing you again to the world of dreams...

Until a knock in the door shook you up again and with your heart beating furiously, you fully woke up again. _God. The landlady again_. Couldn't she just stay the fuck down until you wanted to go? You were really comfortable; it felt so nice, so cozy that you didn't want to go anywhere anytime soon. And you hated that woman with all your heart for forcing you to wake up and move from your bed.

"Ughh..."

Strangely, he was the first one to move. You whined loudly when he moved away from you, and he looked at you questionly while undressing himself from his clothings.

"I'm going!" you said with weak voice, but you didn't move.

With you still in bed, he untied himself from the bed's leg and went to "his place" to kick out some of the blankets. When he had finished, he stood in front of your bed, smiling with his eyebrows raised.

 _What a good boy_ , you thought to yourself. You stood up and took his leash and headed towards the door.

"Good Morning!" said the always so bright landlady.

"...Yeah." You only managed to say.

The landlady took him away from you again. He smiled and you smiled back, waving at him. When he was out of sight you stopped yourself.

_Why the hell am I smiling?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all the kind comments! Really!! They made me super happy and I love you all omg<3<3
> 
> ♡♡♡ Feedback is always appreciated ♡♡♡


	5. Chapter 5

You walked down the stairs still drowsy, and ordered food for three people after knowing Jesse's appetite.

"Why do you spend money on him? Oh, don't get me wrong, since you always pay there is no problem for me but I find it weird, if you ask me."

Knowing that the landlady wouldn’t understand, you told her the first thing that crossed your mind.

"I don't know, I find it funny when he eats."

"Oh."

You took the food with you and went to meet Jesse.

"Hey."

"Hey!" He replied excitedly, taking the piece of clothing you handed to him. "You know, I don't mind being naked in front of you." He said with a suggestive tone and raising his eyebrows.

"Yeah, but I do. Breakfast." You exclaimed, showing the food you brought.

"I'll pay you back for all of this someday." He said, grabbing the food the moment you left the dishes on the ground.

"There's no need to." You said sitting in front of him.

"I will anyway." He protested with his mouth full.

"Yeah? How?" You asked purposely.

"Oh...I mean, I can steal a wallet or something."

You shook your head, "Have you ever tried to escape?"

"You think I haven't tried already? Look at all these scars." He said, showing them to you.

"I don't know, maybe they were from all the times they beat you up."

"Yeah, that too. Look." He said, showing you a scar that crossed his left side of the ribs, "This was the first time, you could even see the bone." You made a disgusted face. "And this one," he said turning around a little, still sitting up, to show another one on the other side of his lower back, "It's from the second time. After that they beat me up for like an hour and told me that if I tried to escape again they would dispose of me, and that I wasn't worth the effort." He finished saying with a wry smile.

You felt bad. Terribly bad for him. You looked at the ground with a gloomy expression on your face. Jesse, noticing your change of attitude, added;

"Oh, and this one!" He said pointing at his neck.

You lifted your head to see the other scar, but you saw nothing.

"I don't see anything."

"Are you for real?" He asked in disbelief.

"Yeah... I, I don't see anything there apart from your collar."

"No, it's a little bit higher."

"...No, I don't see anything." You retorted with narrowed eyes.

"Oh, c'mon, look closer."

You stood up, walking next to him and bent down without your knees touching the ground. He lifted his chin, so you could see better, but you still didn't see anything.

"You are joking I don't s-" Before you could finish your sentence, he grabbed your jacket, making you lose your balance and landing almost on top of him. One of your arms landed over his shoulder, and the other one was on his lower abs dangerously near his manhood. You were about to take your hand away but he was faster and grabbed your wrist, making it impossible to move it from the position.

"Whoa there, honey, I didn't know you were so eager for me." He exclaimed with a smug face.

"Jes-... Jesse what are you doing?" You said nervously, looking everywhere but him.

"Me? It’s _you_ who is on top of me."

You glared at him. "Stop bullshitting me... c'mon, let me go!"

"Oh...your face is so red."

"Of course it's red! I am...please..." You begged, embarrassed.

"Alright..."

He finally let you go and you glared at him again, giving him a soft push on his shoulder.

"Idiot..."

You grabbed some food and turned around from your position, so you would be eating without facing him.

"C'mon, don't be mad." He said, still smiling. But you didn't answer. "I know you liked it".

"WHAT the actual FUCK?" You said out loud, turning around to look at him.

But he just stayed there, chewing his food with a smug face.

You didn’t respond, thinking that maybe it was better to shut up to avoid things from getting worse.

"So...you are not gonna deny it." He said, seemingly satisfied with himself.

"That's not what is happening here!"

"You say that, but you haven't told me otherwise."

"I uh- I-"

"You even complained this morning when I got out of bed."

You looked at him, your eyes wide and mouth open.

"What, you think I wouldn’t notice?"

You couldn't think straight right now, you were being called out so clearly, you couldn't deny any of it. No words came out of your mouth and your brain stopped functioning. So, the only thing you can came up with was to cover your face with your hands. Surely it wouldn't solve a thing, but at least it gave you a fake feeling of safety.

He laughed a little and patted your head lightly.

"We are not talking about this ever again." You said with your hands on your face still.

"Aw c'mon."

"Finish your food. I'm gonna leave again."

"Alright..." He said rolling his eyes.

You took back the dishes inside and headed to the entrance.

"Well then, bye." You told him without looking at him.

"Aren't you gonna give me a goodbye kiss?"

What you gave him instead was a menacing look. You turned around to start walking, but you stood there, without moving.

"Oh?" He exclaimed.

"Uhh...bye."

And you started walking down town.

 

You were walking by the same streets you always took, while millions of thoughts were running in your head.

_What was I thinking? Did I really think about...giving him a kiss- NO! THIS IS NOTHING LIKE ME. What the hell. And...why can't I stop thinking about him now?_

You remembered his soft touch from this morning, how nice you felt between his arms...how tight and warm his body was when you fall on top of him-

_OH NO._

"AARRGGHGHH NOO STOP ITTT!" You screamed in the middle of the street with your hands on your head. Suddenly you realized where you were, and looked around you. Some people were looking at you and others just draw away from you.

_Oops._

"Excuse me... are you ok?" A lovely young lady with blonde braids that fall on every side of her neck asked you.

"Oh... yeah, I just...I was having…an intrusive thought just now, haha..."

"Oh, I know what that is..." You looked at her with curiosity, and when she realized what she has just said, she changed the subject, "Oh! That's not good! You should accept them and move on!" She said smiling.

_Accept them?... No way..._

"Well, then, have a good day!" She said, parting ways with you.

"Have a good day too!" You saw her walk away, slowly disappearing within the crowd. You didn't know why but you decided to follow her, call it a hunch.

In the end you end up arriving at a small shop, with different types of bread at the counter.

 _Can it be?_ You smiled to yourself. You waited for a few minutes before appearing in front of the counter.

"Hey!" She greeted you when she saw you.

"Hey!" You responded, trying to be nice, "You work here?" You asked smiling.

"Yeah! Do you want to buy some bread?"

"Of course, that's why I came here. But I must say... I was in my way to another bakery, I didn't know this one was here." You feigned confusion.

"Oh that's because we just opened yesterday! I had been trying to open this shop some time ago but... there were some…complications."

 _Interesting_.

"Oh!"

"Hey Lovedaia! You have a lot of clients already!" You heard an old man called out to her.

_Bingo. This is perfect._

You acted as if you were looking for a bread to buy while the man was talking with her, and when they were done you asked,

"Lovedaia... that's a cute name."

"Thank you!"

You had to start risking a little.

"You know…I can't help but remember, now that I heard your name. Are you the daughter of the man who died yesterday?"

"Oh... yeah." Her face saddened.

"I'm sorry."

"It's ok... I-”

"But I also heard about his bad habits, so in a way it's a good thing he's gone right? You can now work happily in your bakery."

 _Woah. That was a very cruel and rude comment_. You surprised yourself, but you had to get answers out of this person. But surprisingly, she didn't look bothered.

"Yeah, I mean... he was spending all of our money. At least he is in a better place than us, and now we can finally live in peace."

_That's some cold reasoning._

"So...are you gonna buy a bread?" She said, smiling again.

"Oh- yes..." You looked again at the breads in front of you, seemingly uninterested. You had to think fast. Apparently, this was it.

_Ok she may be the daughter of the dead man and maybe his death was beneficial to her, but that couldn't make her the killer, because what about the other people? What about the mayor, the banker, the... Oh._

"How can I open a shop?"

"Pardon?"

"Oh! I was thinking about opening my…smithy."

_Smithy?_

"Oh..."

"And I don't know what the procedures are, so if you could help me..."

"Sure, you just need the approval from the town’s mayor and a deposit for the bank so-"

_I got you._

"So…so you can..."

"Are you ok?” You asked, "You look uneasy."

"Yeah, it's just that...that..."

"That both of them are dead." Her face turned pale.

"Listen I-"

"Woah! Let me guess, the previous mayor denied your permit to open the shop since you were broke, and the banker didn’t give you a loan because of the same reason right? So now that both of them are dead and your father wasn't spending money out there, you finally have a chance to open your bakery, right?”

"I DIDN'T KILL THEM!"

You remained silent for a few short seconds, and replied.

"But I never said such a thing."

She stepped back in realization.

"What's all the fuss about?" Said a smoky male voice.

Suddenly, from the door behind Lovedaia, a tall man appeared and walked next to her. He was wearing a strange outfit. He wore black boots that ended with two like-claws, green ornaments, black baggy pants and a strange opened-up shirt with no sleeves that showed what it appeared to you to be a chest armor. It looked like he had a tight green t-shirt under it though. He also wore strange gloves that showed his bare fingers, _how impractical_ , you thought, and a green scarf. To complete the strange outfit, he had a piece of metal that looked like a helmet, but it only covered his forehead. Again, _how impractical_.

You could see a strange sword that you thought from far off countries crossing horizontally his lower back, as well as another vertically on his back.

He was so strange to you; his outfit, his weapons, the way he carried them, the aura around him...everything.

But...he was really gorgeous. He had smooth skin and penetrating black eyes. He had strong eyebrows and long eyelashes that matched his black silky hair.

You didn’t realized how long you stared at his face until you noticed his gaze on you, and it wasn't very friendly. In fact, you could even call it menacing. You felt a cold shiver up your spine.

"Well?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise?  
> I guess you know who this is right? Lol
> 
> ♡♡♡ Feedback is always appreciated ♡♡♡


	6. Chapter 6

He looked at you, and although his face is calm, you feel uneasy.

"Who are you?" You asked.

 _Oops, that was a little abrupt_. You didn't know why, but you felt like a kind of...nostalgic when you looked at him.

He smiled. "Why should I tell a complete stranger?"

"I'm sorry." You excused yourself, smiling as well, "I was just here to buy some bread and-"

"Your name."

Even though his attitude was somewhat aggressive, his face remained calm and was always adorned with a smile. It was a weird combination of signals.

"(Y/n)."

"(Y/n), nice to meet you." He said, walking up to you and grabbing your hand. The man bowed down and kissed it. "I am known as Genji." He said with a smug face, looking up with his eyes on you. You took away the hand he was still holding, and he straightened up again.

"And what's this fuss about?" He asked again, still not over it.

"Well..." _Shit_. "I may have said something that just popped in my mind, which sounded like an accusation..."

"What did you say?" He asked, getting even closer to you, the smile never left his face.

"Well I just said that thanks to her dead father, as well as the mayor, now she could perfectly start working in her dream bakery. Now that I think of it..." You said feigning innocence about it. "It really looks like an accusation, but that's not it! I was just pointing out how lucky the circumstances were...haha." You tried to laugh a little to soften the situation but he didn't laugh, nor did she of course, and you found yourself in a dead silence.

He stood there, a few mere inches away from you, looking directly at your eyes.

It was in that moment, when you understood it was him who murdered all those people. You didn't have any proof yet, but you were so sure it was him. A murderous aura surrounded him; your guts told you so, in fact he wasn't just a mere human based from the way he looked. Of course, all the murders involved Lovedaia, but it was him who acted for her. Why? You didn't know, but that's something you'll have to leave for another time. Right now, you had to get out of there as soon as possible.

But his gaze on you were too strong, and that's when it hit you.

He didn't believe any of your words, and he wanted you to know that. He wanted you to know that he had caught you, and that you were in danger.

There was no turning back now. You knew you were his next target.

He raised his hand and you jolted back to reality. You were about to prepare for a fight when he brought a bare finger to your lips.

"Shhh, those are really harsh words you know?" He slid the finger under your chin and lift it. "It can be easily misinterpreted. And that may cause problems." He said, making a special emphasis on the last word.

_Oh. Of course. He won’t take any moves, at least not here, at least not now; in the daylight, with all these people around us._

"Will you rethink your words next time?" He asked, still holding your chin with his finger.

_Oh._

_Is he forgiving me? Is this like a last warning? Will he let me go if I forget about this?_

"I'm sorry." You smiled, gently removing his hand under your chin. "I’ll try but I just can't help it."

You were having none of this shit. You were here to hunt him, not for him to forgive you or spare your life.

"Hm, so this is it. I'll see you around, (y/n)."

You nodded once in agreement, and left the shop.

You couldn’t believe how fast and easy it was to find him. _If I hadn't followed her this morning, I wouldn't know how much it would have cost to find who Lovedaia was... and then him, I would have probably had a lot of trouble finding him, if I ever could. But all those things aside...why does it feel like I knew him already?_

"Thank god she's gone." Lovedaia sighed. "What are we gonna do now?" She asked him. But he didn't answer, his eyes were staring at your disappearing figure in the distance. "Genji?"

"We?" He turned back to her. "Our deal was done once you got your lovely bakery. You got it now, right?"

"What? Wait! You can't leave me now!"

He looked at her with a smug face that meant; Are you sure about that?

"Genji! She-she is gonna come after me! This is your fault!"

"MY FAULT?" He screamed, making her jump with fright. He took quick steps towards her, the woman walked back at the same time until she bumped onto the wall. He grabbed her face with force and warned her coldly;

"This is entirely your fault. I had the whole job done, you finally got your bakery, you didn't have any more problems and then when she appeared you just confessed to her!"

"I d-did not confess!" She retorted quickly with his hand still on her face.

"Oh really? Then what was that about 'I did not murder them?’ Huh? If I didn't come here in that moment, who knows what more you could have said!"

Because she didn't say anything else, he let her go and the woman quickly disappeared from the place. Genji remained on the spot, chewing his thumb nail and thinking with furrowed eyes...

As soon as you arrived to the inn, you told Jesse what happened. Of course, he was being super annoying for worrying about you.

"You don't even know what he is!"

"No I don't, but what am I gonna do?"

"How are you gonna fight him then?"

"I don’t know Jesse, I'll figure it out when I see him in front of me."

"You can't be that reckless."

"I won’t. Jesse, you worry too much, we don't even know if he is that good? He's been killing citizens, that’s not a challenge at all."

"And 3 hunters."

"....Oh, right."

"(Y/n)..."

"It's ok, just-"

"It's not!" He said out loud.

He was really pissing you off, but you knew it was only because he was worried about you.

"Listen, I'll be careful, I don’t want to die you know?"

"Why are you so determined on doing this? It has nothing to do with you."

"People were killed and..." You raised your hand, making motions by rubbing your thumb with your index finger.

"I can't believe you are doing this for money."

You laughed, "I told you people were murdered too!"

"I can’t convince you of not going right?"

"Right." Furthermore, you had other motives of why you wanted to go.

He sighed, defeated.

"I'll meet him again tonight."

"How do you know?"

"We made it clear we'll look for each other again."

He sighed and covered his face with his hands. He looked gloomy. You smiled at the sight of him being so worried for you.

Later, after you had made your preparations in your room, you came back down.

"Well then, bye."

"Wait!" Jesse called you, but you had already stopped before he talked. You walked back to him and knelt, you grabbed his chin and planted a kiss on his lips.

"Bye." You smiled.

He smiled too, looking at your figure as you run down the street.

He felt a mix of feelings. He was happy, but worried about you; he felt butterflies in his stomach, but at the same time a pain in his chest.

He sighed, feeling worried.

It was dark already, but thanks to the moonlight you were able to see were you were going. You headed to the outskirt of the town, at the edge of the forest. You knew he would come where you are going. It had started raining a little, much to your displeasure. Even though you liked the rain, it wasn't the best moment for you.

You stood there waiting, until a voice made you turn around.

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

"I thought you had cried off."

He smiled. "Huh, as if I had the need to."

"Why did you do it?"

"Excuse me?" He asked, but you didn't repeat yourself. He knew what you meant. Because you didn't say anything, he continued, "And why not?"

"I want to know before I kill you."

"Pff, ahahaha." He laughed at your statement, "Well I’ll tell you, and then we’ll see about that. I did it because it was part of our deal.”

"A deal?"

"We made a contract. The girl and me. I had to give her back her lovely bakery.”

"In exchange for?"

"Her soul."

A silent gasp escaped from your mouth.

"... Her... soul? But..."

"But?"

"How is this ev-what are you?"

"What am I? Haven't you never heard about these kinds of deals?"

"Yes but...they were made by demons and... demons don't exist... right?"

He smiled and winked at you.

You instinctively stepped back, but he was moving closer to you.

"I don't believe you."

"Do you think that there are only werewolves and vampires out there? There is more than you think and know in this shitty world we live in." He started walking towards you, "You don't believe me? Perhaps you want to make a deal with me too?"

"Don't come any closer."

"That way you could find out. At least after you die though-"

"I said stop!" You yelled, firing a shot at him and although he dodged it easily, it made him stop in his steps. He stood there in front of you.

"Is there anything else you want to know? Or perhaps you prefer to start the killing? I can invite you to dinner if you want to."

You shot at him and he jumped, dodging it again.

"I guess it's the second option, then." He said, as he landed on the ground.

You shot again and this time, he draw out one of his swords and deflected the bullet. You were surprised at how skilled he was, fearing that you would be no match to him but you kept shooting until the last one of your bullets hit near his knee. He let out a small groan, kneeling on the ground and in an instant, he took three metal pieces and threw them at you, landing on your thigh. You whimpered, looking at the weird device in your thigh and in that moment, you forgot about the pain, the fight and your mission as an old, already forgotten memory came into your mind; you saw dead guards laying on the ground, with these star-like pieces buried in some parts of their bodies. Coming back to reality, you looked at him; he was looking at you curiously, he noticed how your expression changed when you saw the weapons buried in your flesh.

You let out a groan and stood up. Because you were out of bullets, you took out your sword this time, and walked towards him. He took out his sword as well and prepared himself to fight. Both of your swords collided here and there, with a punch or a kick you would give him.

At this point, both of you had cuts in some parts of your bodies, as well as some bruises that had started to form on your flesh. However, most importantly, throughout the fight you keep getting the impression of dealing with something familiar. You were confused. You didn't know this man. You had never met him. But somehow you got the feeling that he has always been with you. But maybe this was his doing, maybe he was doing something to make you feel like this. You wouldn't fall in his trap.

You thought you were going to give him a final blow but you mistakenly supported your weight on your wounded thigh, making you fell onto your knees. When you saw Genji's sword on top of your head, you panicked for a moment, but he suddenly stopped. Without a second thought, you swing back with your sword, quickly standing up and kicking his chin, making him fall completely to the ground. You walked to him and stepped on his hand with force, making him lose his grip on the sword. Once he did, you kicked the weapon far from him and pointed at him with your own sword.

"Now is the time you die." But he didn't answer. "Any last words?"

"Lovedaia..."

"What?"

"She didn't tell me to kill them."

"Explain yourself."

"She just wanted the stupid bakery. She never told me to kill those people. That was just my idea of solving the problem. When she found out what I did she wanted to quit, but I reminded her we had a contract. She thought about turning herself in, but I threatened her.

" "Why do you care?"

"I don't."

"Then?"

"Those are my last words. Are you going to finish me or not?"

This was it. Everything was over. You raised your sword by the hilt and pointed exactly to his neck. Your heart was pumping fast, you maintained your weapon just on top of him, you were prepared to drop the blade in his neck, but for whatever reason you were unsure. You would have done it in other occasions, but this time it was different.

"What is it? You want me to invite you to dinner at the end?"

"Shut up!"

Your hands were trembling.

"C'mon, do it."

You tightened your grip around the sword's hilt with both of your hands, all wet because of the rain. You were prepared to do it. There’s no going back.

"Just make sure not to fall again in a frozen lake."

You growled at him and plunged the sword on the ground.

You breathed heavily, supporting yourself in the hilt of the sword; the rain was falling down, cleaning some of the wounds of your body. You looked at his face with anger.

"I knew you wouldn't kill me." He said smiling, with a smug face.

You pulled out the sword on the ground next to his neck and threw it away. You sat on top of him and grabbed him by his shirt.

"Explain! NOW!"

He laughed, "What do you want me to explain?"

You pulled him by his shirt and shouted, "YOU KNOW PERFECTLY WHAT I MEAN!"

But he just kept laughing at your words.

"Why do I feel like I know you? Why do I feel like I've seen these weird metal stars? How do you know about the frozen lake?" You demanded, shaking him by his shirt.

"Because I've been always there, silly!" He said laughing, "It was me who pulled you out of that frozen lake, it was me who disposed some of the aggressors that were after you, sometimes enemies that you didn't even know you had, it has always been me who has gotten you out of trouble!"

You couldn't believe what you were hearing, but everything made sense now. However, you didn’t have time to think about it as he grabbed you by your jacket, pushing you next to him and being on top of you this time.

"Confused? I bet you are, your face is a poem. By the way, did you really think you were going to kill me? I'm hard to kill you know." You couldn't do anything, you were trapped under him and you didn't have the strength to try anything. The shock of his words left you incapable of doing nothing but hearing him talk. "I guess you still have a lot of questions, but uh... I don't feel like answering them, and although I like seeing pretty girls wet in the rain, I think I'll be going this time."

He let go of his grip in your jacket and turned your face so that your cheek was now touching the ground. "I'll see you around, (y/n)." He said, giving you a small kiss on your cheek, and with a smoke that came out of nowhere, he disappeared, leaving you there in a state of anxiety and cold under the rain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ♡♡♡ Feedback is always appreciated ♡♡♡


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shit's about to happen :D  
> Btw I'm really happy with all the comments I'm receiving!! You are all so nice and I'm so glad you are liking it so far!!! Also! Many thanks to my beta reader Bojevnik, because thanks to her I can write faster and update weekly!! <3

You felt like crying. You were completely wet and cold, your body wounded, tired, confused, and you just wanted to go to sleep. But you couldn’t. Not here, at least. You wanted to leave and forget what happened, and that meant leaving this town behind.

You arrived at the inn to see...

_Oh._

You forgot. _Jesse._

Originally your plan was to come to this town, hunt the ghoul, earn the reward, and leave. But everything went wrong. There was no ghoul, you had no reward, somehow this demon had some relation with you, and then Jesse. When you first saw him, your idea was to do your job and leave him here. You didn't have anything to do with him. But you had to start interacting with him. Now you were too involved with the man to leave him here without any remorse. What were you going to do now? You definitely didn't want to leave him here. But you had no option, you couldn't do anything after all.

"(Y/n)!" He shouted, smiling. "You are ok! Wounded, but...hey, are you ok?" He asked now with furrowed eyebrows.

"I'm leaving."

Silence surrounded the two of you, except for the noise from the warm tavern full of people, happily drinking, singing, and making jokes.

"Wh-.. wait, you…I mean..." He stuttered.

"I'm leaving, Jesse. My work here is done."

"Wait! Can't you just wait a moment? Can't you...stay here another night? It's...it's too late, it's better to leave in the morning, just-"

"No, I'm leaving now." You stopped talking and headed back to your room, struggling to ignore the desperate calls of the werewolf.

Even if you stayed another night or week, it wouldn't make a difference, it was better to do it in the fastest way possible.

You entered your room and packed a few of your belongings. Maybe if you leave right now you could get to the next town in the morning. You went down, resolved to leave without looking back, especially without looking at Jesse.

But you couldn't, as he grabbed you by your wrist the moment you passed through him.

"Hey! Wait a minute! Why are you in such a rush? Did something happen?"

"Jesse, it's ok, I just want to leave." You tried to escape from his grip, but he was too strong.

"Jesse... please, I-" But you couldn't finish your words as a broom suddenly hit his face, letting you free.

"What do you think you are doing?! Grabbing a client like that! Filthy scum!" The landlady kept hitting him with the broom and kicking him, even though he was on the ground unable to do anything anymore.

"Hey! It's ok, really!" You tried to stop the woman.

"No, it's not ok, we can't allow him to do such an act."

"Please stop hitting him..." But she didn't stop.

"Please...STOP!" You shouted to her. All the noise at the tavern disappeared, and all the people stared at the three of you.

The landlady looked at you, surprised, and ran her hand through her hair.  

"Alright...hmm...were you leaving?"

"Yes, thank you for everything. Good bye." You turned around and head towards the door, but Jesse stood on his knees and grabbed your jacket from behind.

"(Y/n)!" You turned around and looked down at him, now grabbing your front jacket.

"Jesse..."

"Take me with you."

Everyone in the tavern remained silent until one of the men started to laugh at his statement, followed by his friends and others, until the whole tavern was laughing.

"You are so silly! Who would...how do you even dare to ask that? Do you think that- someone... oh my god..." The landlady laughed.

"That is so pathetic..."

"So ridiculous..."

Jesse looked around at them, and then back at you with desperate eyes. What were you supposed to do?

"Jesse, I... I'm sorry, I..." Suddenly, an idea crossed your mind. You looked at the landlady, and told her, "I...I'll buy him."

His eyes were wide at your words, and he looked at her hopefully. The woman was surprised to hear you as well.

"What? It...it's not for sale."

"Just, give me a price, I'll pay you."

She looked like she was thinking about it better, until she told you:

"3000 coins and you can take it."

Jesse looked back at you. "I'll give it to you back. I...I can work, I'll work for you, whatever you want. I'll pay you back, I promise..."

But you shook your head, "I don't have the money." You said sadly.

"But...what about the ghoul, the- the reward..."

"I didn't earn it."

He sighed in defeat, he closed his eyes and stayed in his position, grabbing you with his forehead rested on your belly.

"Then this is it, you can leave now." Said the landlady.

But you looked at the werewolf in front of you, defeated, discouraged and resigned to his fate. You couldn't help but feel sad for him. Of course you would. He was living in such a shitty condition, getting beaten up all day. You lift your hand and rest it on his head, and run your fingers through his hair. Jesse, who have been hiding his face in your body, looked at you. You pulled away the locks of hair from his eyes, and traced your hand to his left cheek, resting your hand and touching a bruise on his lower lip with you thumb.

"Ahhh... fuck it."

You took out your gun and shot the lock that connected Jesse's leash to the pole thrice.

"What THE-" The landlady started yelling, but she stopped when she saw you pointing at her with the revolver.

"Alright now, we are going to leave, and I don't want ANY suspicious movements, ok? You.." You said looking at Jesse, who was wearing a full smile, unlike you, "Up."

He obeyed and went next to you.

"You don't know what you are doing! We'll get the guards!"

"...Jesse, if the guards caught you escaping-"

"I don't care."

"...Alright then, it's decided."

You two went backwards towards the door, Jesse holding the long metal leash, and you made sure nobody decided to do something stupid. Once you were out of the inn, you run through the streets, capturing the attention of some of the villagers.

 _Oh, of course_.

You stopped in an alley, grabbing the few pieces of clothes you had gotten him before and told him, "Wear this, c'mon..."

"Oh, thank god, little Jesse was getting cold."

You looked at him in disbelief.

"Are you really making a joke in a moment like this?"

"Oh, I'm not joking, it was getting frozen, really."

You rolled your eyes and once he was done, you started running again.

"Hey, don't be so tense." He told you.

"How can I not? I'm worried."

"Don't worry, I'll protect you." You looked at him unimpressed.

"I can take care of myself. I'm worried about you."

"Me? Darling, I'm a werewolf I-"

"SHH!" You stopped behind a wall, and waited until a couple of guards crossed the street. "Jesse, you can get killed for escaping."

"I prefer dying than living in that hellish inn."

"Jesse let's just...let's be careful, alright? If something happens to you, it’ll be my fault..."

"Hey, it wouldn't be your fault, I wanted this."

You didn't answer; instead, both of you ran through the street. After some time, you almost arrive at the forest.

"C'mon, we can do this." You reassured him, but you were actually telling it to yourself.

But just when you stepped in the forest, you heard some horses galloping onto your direction.

"Oh no..." You two hid behind some trees, and waited to them to disappear but to your misfortune, they stopped and dismounted the horses to start looking for you two.

"Leave this to me." Jesse said, whispering.

"NO, no, no, no, Jesse, wait, what are you going to do?" You said, whispering as well.

"Getting rid of them, of course."

"But! Jesse, you... they are too many ju-"

"Hey, trust me, I can do this."

You watched with distrust and worry as Jesse walked away. You saw how he hid behind a bush and waited for one of the guards to get near it and with quick movement (almost too fast for you to really understand what happened), Jesse covered his mouth and dragged him behind the bush and seconds later Jesse was walking out of there.

In that moment, a guard started approaching you, so you took a pebble and threw it to where Jesse was, and as expected, the guard moved to his direction. Jesse tried the same technique as before but it didn't work this time, so he used his leash to choke the guard from behind until the he stopped struggling and remained unconscious. He made a gesture indicating you to follow him. You obeyed and walked towards him.

"There is still more guards." You told him.

"I know, but we have to keep moving, furthermore, if we-"

"THERE THEY ARE!" Yelled one of the guards.

"Shit!"

In that moment, more guards appeared and started to shoot at you two. You took cover and started firing too, a few of your bullets hitting some of the guards, until you ran out of bullets. You looked for Jesse, but you didn't see him.

Suddenly, you saw him jump on top of the guard and bit his neck, leaving a horrendous wound that bled excessively, and with rapid movements he scratched the guards’ bodies with his...

_Claws?_

He kept fighting like that for a minute until all the guards were down, and Jesse stood in the middle, breathing hard and heavy. He looked at you and started walking towards your direction, but you instinctively stepped back, that made him stop and realize what happened.

His teeth were longer, his ears were pointier than before, and his mouth was stained with fresh, red blood that dropped onto his neck and chest. His gaze was now fierce with bright yellow orbs and his nails had become black and pointy, resembling those of an animal.

"Hey... it's ok... (Y/n)?" He said lifting his hands, trying to calm you.

In that moment, Jesse's body shook at the impact of a shot.

"No!" You shouted.

It looked like there was still one more guard that nobody saw. You tried to go where Jesse was standing, but the guard shot at you on the shoulder.

"Stay there, I'll deal with you once I kill this monster."

"No..please..." You tried to crawl to where the both of them were, but you were too tired, too wounded. Your wounds from the fight with Genji were still fresh, and you can barely move your body at this point.

The guard had reached Jesse's body, stepping on him and pointed his gun towards the werewolf. Jesse tried to remove the guard’s leg on top of him, but it only caused him shoot at his arm. Jesse let out a loud growl and looked fiercely at him.

"... disgusting monster." Then the guard shot him in his chest.

One time.

Two times.

Three, four times.

"NO, PLEASE STOP IT!"

Five times.

"No..." You cried to yourself.

"Last one goes to your head. Say good bye, pest."

"NO!"

Suddenly in that moment, an unseen wave came from the inside of the forest that made the guard fall off and unconscious on the ground.

You crawled with difficulty, crying, to where Jesse's body were.

"No... no... no, no...Jesse..."

He was breathing heavily, his wounds were bleeding everywhere.

"Jesse..." You said crying... "I'm sorry..."

He looked at you without moving, his brows furrowed, showing the already familiar yellow eyes and smiled with struggle.

"This is nothing but a scratch..."

"Jesse..."

"Ok I'm gonna die."

You cried louder now.

"H-hey, shh, it's ok." He said trying to wipe the tears at your eyes.

"This is my fault. I shouldn't have taken you with me, I-"

"No, I... already told you, I prefer dying trying to escape than... living the rest of my life there..."

"But..." You caressed his cheek, and hid your face on his bloody chest, "I don't want you to die." You said with your crying, muffled voice.

You lifted your head again, just to see a woman right in front of you, laying on her right side, resting her head on her hand.

"Hello dear~"

You jumped in fright at the sudden view.

She rolled so she could be lying now on her back, looking at the sky.

"Ah...the night is beautiful isn't it? I love the night; full of secrets, full of lies, full of death... full of love..."

You grabbed Jesse and pulled him to you, wanting to protect him from this woman. The woman, without moving from her position, told you:

"Don't worry dear, I'm not going to hurt you." She rolled back again so now she was laying down; resting her face with both hands, at the same time she swung her legs like a little kid. "In fact, I'm here to help you."

"What?"

"(Y/n), don't listen to her, she's a witch."

You looked at her again. She was a beautiful woman, blonde, blue eyes, pale face, pink lips...she was wearing a big hat and a rather provocative outfit, high socks and pointy shoes, as well as a book hanged by her hips.

"Whatever she has to say, it's a trap."

"Oh don't be that silly! I just want to help, really!"

"How can you help?"

"(Y/n)!"

"I can save him." She said with a smug face.

"Wh- then, please, help h-"

"(Y/n) no! I'm telling- ahh... I'm telling you, you can't trust a witch!"

"But she can help you, you can live! Jesse..."

She looked at the two of you talking, as if she was watching an interesting show.

"She won't! And if she does, then it will be worse."

"Jesse, I don't get it, she is telling-"

"Hey guys, it's not that this doesn't amuse me but, time is running out, he's dying remember?"

"(Y/n)-"

"Save him."

"(Y/n)!"

"Of course! But everything has a price."

"I'll pay, I have money I-"

"Oh no, no, not that kind of price. You'll have to do something for me in exchange."

"I'll do it."

"Very good."

Jesse now was too weak to complain, so he just sighed in resignation.

"You'll have to get 5 things for me and-"

"I will do it, so please, do something already!"

"Alright." She said smiling.

She placed her hand on top of his chest, and raised it; at the same time, five bullets came out of his chest. Jesse let out a loud groan and you saw the bullets floating on top of his chest. She made a quick movement with her hand and the bullets flew in that direction, falling onto the ground eventually. Then, she kneeled and put her hand on his bare chest, a bright yellow smoke released from them and into the bullet wounds and little by little, restoring the flesh until there was only blood remaining in his chest. She lifted his side a little and did the same with the bullet on his back and then turned to you.

"I'll do yours for free."

She got closer to you and did the same with your bullet wound and the others from your earlier fight.

You looked at Jesse, he was looking at his bloody woundless chest and back at you, he was going to say something but you suddenly jumped to him and hugged him. He was surprised at first, but then he hugged you too.

The witch was now sitting on the ground, with her legs folded to her chest and foot touching the ground, hugging her knees with one hand and resting her face with the other.

"Oh, so cute."

You suddenly remembered about the witch, and turned to face her.

"So, what's the price?"

"As I told you, you'll have to get these five things for me; the first one is the red fletching of a certain demon, he wears a quiver, obviously, and you'll recognize him for his grumpy face."

"What, for his grumpy face?"

"Yes, like this." She put her hand under her face and made a grumpy face.

"..."

"You can find him in Edrethland forest."

"What about the other four?"

"Oh, I'll tell you once you bring me the first one, if you are able to do it of course."

"Alright. What if I escape and do nothing for you?"

The witch, who had been smiling all the time until now, had a serious, menacing look on her face.

"If I sense that you are not doing what you must be doing...and believe me, I'm able to know... well, you don't want to hear the rest." She finished, smiling again.

_Oh... alright..._

"Well then, Tschüss!" In a blink of an eye, she disappeared.

The forest was silent again; it looked like everything that had happened was an illusion, you looked at Jesse, alive with blood staining almost all over his body. Certainly, it was no illusion.

You two stood up and took the only guard's horse you could find and mounted it, resolved to start the long mission that was awaiting you.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :D
> 
> ♡♡♡ Feedback is always appreciated ♡♡♡


	8. Chapter 8

You were in charge of riding first. Jesse was sitting behind you, sleeping, hugging you tight and chin rested on your right shoulder. You were slightly leaned as he was supporting his weight on you, but it was ok, you could handle it. You took a look at him.

"Oh... great."

His slightly opened mouth was drooling and it was falling onto your jacket. After 3 hours of riding, you stopped so the horse could rest for a while, waking Jesse up afterwards. He yawned, looking at your jacket and laughed.

"Haha, what's that?"

"Your fucking saliva."

"Oh... really?" He bursts into laughter, and you couldn't help but smile too. You grew fond of him. In just these 3 days, you got really attached to him, and going through his near-death experience somehow made you closer to him. It helped you realize how much you cared about him, and it suprised you, given the fact that you just met him 3 days ago.

After some time, you were ready to continue the trip.

"C'mon, my turn."

"I can keep going, if you want." You said.

"No it's fine, you haven't sleep yet."

"Alright..." You didn't ask him twice. Even though you weren't wounded anymore, you were still tired from the fight some hours ago.

You got near the horse and wondered where you should sit. In that moment, Jesse came next to you and mounted the horse, leaving some space in front of him and lending you a hand to help you climb.

"In the front?"

"Sure, I don't want you falling back in the middle of the ride."

_Hm, Fair enough._

You accepted his hand and mounted the horse. He took the horse reins, you could see his arms at both of your sides.

"You can lean on me, otherwise you will fall forward."

Even though you actually wanted to be close to him, it was a little embarrasing to do so. But still, he was right, so you just closed your eyes and leaned back on his still naked chest.

He was happy. He could feel butterflies in his stomach, and a slight boner. Not only he was finally free, but his saviour, who he had fallen for a little, was literally in between his arms. He loved the feeling of you leaning on his body; he found it to be warm, cute and hot.

He wondered how you would think of him. He remembered your first meeting started with a revolver pointing to his face. But that had changed since that. You were now nice to him, you helped him escape, and you even cried when you thought he was going to die. And on top that, you accepted a deal with a witch to save his life, even when he told you it wasn't always a fair deal.

 _Does she think of me as a friend? As something more than a friend? As a burden?_ He hoped it wasn't the last option at least. He had gotten fond on you, it had been ages since he got along with a human, but he never felt something like this.

_Maybe it's just a crush, he thought. Maybe I'm just so obsessed with her because she saved me, and I feel really thankful. Am I mistaking it with love?_

He didn't discard the possibility. It hadn’t been a long time for him to actually know, but he knew that at least, right know his feelings were real. Right now, his feelings could be described as wanting to be around you, playing with you, touching you, hugging you, and banging you.

He wondered again how you would think of him.

You felt the horse trot before opening your eyes. You moved your head a little, positioning it right in front of Jesse's throat, feeling that damn collar in the back of your head.

"Good morning darlin!" You heard his raspy voice on top of you.

He was grabbing the horse reins with one hand, and the other on your lap, holding you into place. It was still kind of dark, but you could tell it was already sunrise.

You sighed without moving.

"We need to find a smithy to get that damn thing off of you."

He huffed. "Do you think there will be a blacksmith willing to take this off? They know what this is and what it is used for."

"We have to try though. What are you going to do then, live with that for the rest of your life?"

"I mean, of course not...I'm just stating the few possibilities we have."

You shrugged.

You arrived at the town, and left the horse there. The streets were still silent and slighty dark, so you tried to be as quiet as possible.

"C'mon, let's find a smithy."

He groaned. Of course he wanted to take that shit off, but he didn't feel like bearing disgusted faces towards him. You would think he was already used to it, and while it was true, he would always be a little bothered about it.

"I found it." He said unimpressed.

"Where? I don't see anything."

"Oh I can't see it either. But can I hear it."

"Oh! right." You smiled. _Of course he would hear it_. "Where do we go?"

"Let's just go straight for now." He said with the same tone.

"Hey! Lighten up! You are going to have that thing removed!" You tried to cheer him up.

"Or get kicked out of there, yeah."

"You don't know that. C'mon." You grabbed his hand and started running by the street. He would lie if he said that he wasn't taken aback by your action, but when he started to run, he suddenly remembered his old days, when he was free and instantly, it improved his mood.

He could easily, of course, go faster than you, but he enjoyed being dragged by you.

"To the right!" He said, now with a happy voice, and you obeyed. But this street was slighty steep, you were getting extremely tired until you finally stopped and laid on the street, with Jesse laughing at you.

"Hey, I've been... running for some minutes already…DRAGGING you, and now this steepy street, I didn't do that bad." You said out of breath.

"Of course not." He said still laughing. _This is fun_ , he thought. He helped you stand up and kept walking to the shop. You could already hear the sounds of hammer hitting some metals.

You arrived at last, and you were about to enter when Jesse stopped you. You looked at him and asked him with your eyes.

"... Uhhhh..."

"Leave this to me."

"Wait!" But you had already entered the place and he had no other option but to follow you. Inside, you bumped with the owner of the smithy.

 _Oh, a dwarf. A blacksmith dwarf. How uncommon!_ You thought sarcastically.

The dwarf had a blonde hair and a big beard divided into two big braids that ended in a metal ornament. He was using a metal grey and red armour, and you could see a tattoo in his right shoulder that looked like fitting nuts.

He looked at you and then at Jesse with furrowed eyebrows, inspectioning the both of you.

"Uhhh..." You started.

"Wait here." He said, and left.

You shrugged at Jesse.

Seconds later he appeared with a big axe, causing Jesse to start walking backwards.

"Put your head there." He ordered.

"NOT A CHANCE."

"Jesse, put your head there."

"(Y/n)??!?!?"

"C'mon he's going to help."

"He is..HE HAS A..." He said with high pitched voice.

"I'm just going to cut that leash, it will be annoying while working."

"See? he's just going to cut the leash."

But he wasn't convinced. You look down at the dwarf with narrowed eyes, questioning him with your look. He nodded at you once, and you did the same.

"It's ok Jesse, you have to trust him." You said smiling.

He sighed and kneeled at the height of the dwarf's anvil. You went next to him and cupped his face and neck with your arm, trying to calm him so he wouldn't be alone and afraid.

The dwarf lifted the axe and in one smooth motion he cut the leash from the collar, at the same time Jesse let out a short, high pitched scream. You couldn't help but laughed at his reaction, and ruffled his hair.

"See? What a good boy!"

"Ha, ha, ha" He said, but he was smiling, albeit feeling a little bit uneasy.

"Next is the collar. It would be better if I could molten that piece." Jesse touched his neck reflexively, "But I guess that would hurt."

"You guess???!?" He exclaimed.

"I'll guess I'll be just using a hammer."

"A hammer?"

"What, do you prefer me using a sandpaper?"

"Yes! That would be better!"

"That would take hours dumbass! I don't have the time for that!"

"Could you two, just... behave?" You said dropping your hands in front of you, trying to calm them down.

"I'll need your help" He said looking at you. "And you, boy…put your head again over there, but this time, next to it."

He still had a hesitant look on his face but he obeyed.

"Push the collar onto his neck, so the other side won't be touching his neck." Understanding what the dwarf was about to do, you pushed the collar at the left side of his neck, so his right side wasn't touching the piece of metal. You lead his head next to the anvil, so the metal piece was resting on it. It was still close to his neck, but at least it was something.

The dwarf went to the other side of the anvil and started hammering the collar.

"This is going to get me deaf..."

"Just a few more."

You saw how effectively, that spot where he’s hammering was getting smashed, and it was nearly getting smashed. Finally, with a crack, the metal finally broke, and the dwarf, now with another tool, stretched both edges of the collar so that now there was space enough for Jesse to take it of. He did it instantly, and brought his hands to his neck, touching it over and over, and a radiant smile grew on his face.

He stood, still in awe, and looked at you.

You couldn't help but think how damn cute he was behaving. He was so happy he didn't have that thing in his neck anymore, a slighty flush runned through your cheeks.

He suddenly cupped your cheeks and planted a short kiss there, and rushed to leave the shop. You didn't move, only following his movements after he had left. It happened too quickly that you didn’t have time to respond, except with a surprised look on your face.

You looked at the dwarf again, who was wearing an unimppressed expresion, and you smiled.

"He looks happy."

"Indeed." You laughed. "Thank you so much."

And for the first time, the dwarf smiled too. "Torbjörn, at your service".

"How much should I pay you?"

He thought for a moment.

"I didn't do much of a work here, so you can just leave."

"Are you sure? We are really thankful for the help."

He waved you off with his hand.

"At least keep the silver. It's worth something."

"Well, alright."

"Thank you, goodbye."

"Goodbye." He said with a smile.

You left the shop and you didn't see Jesse anywhere. You walked for some minutes but didn't see him. You feared that he had left. But suddenly, someone hugged you from behind and said loudly in your ear:

"I'M FREE!"

"Ouuch-"

He turned you around and lifted you from the ground and started circling you around, finishing in a hug. He let you go but cupped your cheeks again.

"I'm free!" He exclaimed, and you laughed. He brought your face closer and planted a kiss on your lips again. You noticed how your mood suddenly changed from happy to happy and light-headed, you felt how your blood ran to your cheeks, and butterflies fluttered in your stomach, and you wanted to scream in excitement.

When he stopped, you pulled away from him, clearing your throat, still unable to hide your silly smile.

"Yeah, but... uhh now we have a mission to do-“ You suddenly realized, that actually, _you_ had a mission to do, not him, it was you who made the deal. " I mean, if you want to come."

"What are you talking about? Of course I'm going."

Alright, that ended your concern quickly.

"Ok so, first thing we-"

"I'm gonna do it." He said, getting really close to you

"Wh-what are you gonna do?" You said, face flushed.

"The thing."

"Wh-... what thing..." You said with his face almost touching yours.

"I'm going to transform."

_Oh._

_OH._

"NO, JESSE, YOU CAN'T RIGHT NOW."

"What? Why?"

"We are in the middle of a town, people are starting to show up already."

He made a pout with his face.

"Not now."

He sighed, "You are right..."

"Ok so, first thing we are going to do," He looked at you expectantly, "is clean that blood from your chest, and give you clothes."

He realized he had still blood from the guards and his own from the bullets in his chest.

"Oh right."

"And you'll go alone, I'll give you money, so buy whatever you need. I'll buy food and provisions for the trip."

"Why alone?"

"So we get more things done in less time."

"Nnng, alright."

"Here." You said, giving him a little sack of money. "We'll meet here at the horses not later than high noon, alright?'"

"Yes ma'am."

And like that, you parted in different ways.

You were careful to not forget the way back to the horses, and thought to yourself that Jesse wouldn't have that problem with his sense of smell. You bought some food and some water, as well as other goods that could be needed in the trip. However, you two had arrived at town early and you were already done. So you decided to walk a little around the town, hoping you could met Jesse, but you didn't, and decided to come back to the horses, thinking that maybe he would appear there before the designated hour.

But then again, he didn't. You waited and waited, and it wasn't until just high noon, when you heard...

_Spurs?_

You were sitting on the ground, but didn't had time to see who it was. If it was Jesse, he would come to where you were. If it wasn't, they would just keep walking. He was just some feet away when asked you:

"Ready to go?"

"Yes, hours ago, I thought you'd come earlier." You said standing up. Now that he was in front of you, you could clearly see his outfit, and it wasn't anything humble.

He was wearing a black hat with a metal insignia on it. His torso was in this white shirt with a red neckerchief and black vest-cum-jacket. His hands were in these brown leather gloves and his lower body was fashioned in brown pants, a belt with a skull insignia, and some leather and metal pieces that buckled around his legs. He was wearing boots with slighty heels, spurs, and a small knife showing out of the front of the boots. He even had weapons, a crossbow on his back and a revolver on his right side, and cartridge belts at his hips and crossing his chest.

Finally you looked at his face. He were cleaner, his scruffy beard was now trimmed into a perfect shape, his slighty long hair was now tied, and the last thing that almost blown up your mind, was the cigar in his mouth.

You were walking around him, looking at him thoroughly.

 _Fuck_.

_He is hot. So hot. Fuck, fuck, fuck._

You were practically red and flustered; seeing him like this left you speechless. Your heart was beating faster and you couldn't stop looking at him. Often, it happens the other way around; when you see the other one naked, you start to feel these symptoms, but in your case, you had already see him naked (at most, only wearing pants). You didn't expect he would come all dressed up like this.

You just couldn't believe he would look so handsome, so gorgeous, with some clothes and a trimmed beard.

You didn't even realized the way you were acting before him, and of course, it didn't go unnoticed by him.

"Honey, you look like you're devouring me with you eyes." He said with a smug face.

You looked at him with your red face.

"Um... I, Uh, You, Uh..." You babbled.

He raised his eyebrows, smiling proudly.

"I mean..." You looked at the ground so the view wouldn't distract you anymore, "You look nice, I mean, it suits you..."

"Thank you honey." He said lowering his head, so he could see your face staring at the ground and when you noticed his movement, you looked in front of you, taken aback by the closeness of your faces. You stood there for some seconds, until you cleared your throat and headed to the horse.

"We should be going. I'll ride."

You wanted to ride, because otherwise you should be hugging him from behind and you didn't think you were prepared for that right now. Instead, he would hug you, but it wouldn't be the same.

After some time had passed, you were calmer at last, it helped for the fact that you weren't looking at him, so you asked,

"Why did you buy weapons?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Um... I don't know."

"I've always used them."

"Really?" You asked, genuinely interested.

"Yeah, before ending up in that Gaban's hell. I'm pretty good with them." He said stretching forward to see your face.

"Heh, I'll believe you when I see it." You said, joking.

"Oh, you don't believe me? Do you want me to show you?" He said with a rather suggestive tone.

"I-I didn't know you smoked either." You changed the subject, as his voice and closeness were making you flushed again.

"Of course you wouldn't know, it's not like the landlady would let me smoke."

"So... it's not something you picked up earlier? It was something that you've always done?"

"Yep."

You then realized how little you knew about him.

"How did you end up in Gaban's inn?"

"Uhh..."

Because he didn't answer, you asked, looking slighty behind you.

"Jesse?"

"...I was drunk."

"..."

You let out a loud burst of laughter.

"When...haha, when was that?"

"About a year, maybe."

"Oh-oh my god... hahahaha, I can't believe you," You kept laughing. "You spent a whole year, in there, because you were, haha, drunk..."

"It's not funny." He said, but he was laughing too. "How far is the forest we are going to?"

"Uhhh not so far, we can get there even today, maybe."

"Hmm. Nice."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> McCree going to the blacksmith = Puppy going to the vet anyone??
> 
> And yeah Van Helsing skin here <3
> 
> ♡♡♡ Feedback is always appreciated ♡♡♡


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WELL SURPRISE  
> I also bring some music for this chapter --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5-ddLodThA
> 
> I heard it in the movie "Red Riding Hood", and even though I actually didn't like it, I think the scene where that music played was dope as fuck, so it inspirated me to write this scene.  
> The song is actually from the game far cry though.
> 
> You can start listening to it when you see *Music on* in the chapter  
> Hope you like it!

“You know, we would go faster if you rode me.”

You remained a few seconds silent, smiling to yourself, thinking about the double meaning of that sentence.

"Jesse, you didn't even stop to think about what you just said right?"

"What thing?"

"We can't do that at all, Jesse."

"Why not?"

"Jesse, we are still near the villages, the towns... you just, look you cannot go running  in the road as a big-ass wolf, people know how a werewolf look like you know? Imagine what could happen, they could totally attack us, very easily indeed, you know that if they see a werewolf, they are going to run scared or fucking start attacking you, attacking us, in this case, we cannot risk th-”

"Ok, you are right... I understand... I just wanted to... go wolf."

"But why are you so persistent about it? Can't you just remain human?"

"Of course I can, I just, there's been hella time since I did, and now that I'm free... I just want to... I NEED to..." he sighed. He didn't know how to explain himself. How could a human understand about his animal impulses? Jesse always thought that humans didn't really understand them so well as they claimed.

He sighed again and rested his forehead in your shoulder. And you stopped the horse.

He lifted his head surprised.

"Why do we stop?"

You turned around still on top of the horse, so now you were sitting in front of him, your forelegs touching. It was the first time you looked at him directly since your khkjhnjk.

You stared at him with a soft smile, what made him do the same. You leaned forward and pinched his cheek softly and returned to your position.

"Jesse, I guess I don't really understand what you are saying, but I can see it seems important to you. However, I must reaffirm myself here. Maybe you are dying to go wolf, but you must think about your safety first, you just got free, you don't want to get locked again. Look, I promise you, the time will come, but not now, these regions are not really safe for werewolves." 

He smiled fondly at her. _Of course she is right_ , he thought. He knew already everything you just said, but he just hoped nobody would be around in that time. But those kind of hopes were the ones that always put him into trouble, like the last one, Gaban's inn. But it was nice having someone pushing him in the right direction.

_Shit, she's still taking care of me._

He sighed again but this time looking fondly at you. He grabbed the back of your knees and dragged you to him, resting them on top his. He wanted to kiss you. He took off the cigar from between his lips and puffed the smoke to his side and looked at you. He leaned forward to kiss you, but he stopped, as he captured a smell.

"What's wrong?" You asked, with your hands in his forearms, which you had placed there when he leaned forward to kiss you.

"Did we have a village to see before arriving to Edrethland?"

"I don’t know."

He looked at you, "You don't know?"

"No, how am I supposed to know every location? I asked in the last town, where Edrethland was, I had plenty of time until you arrived. Why? Is there a village? It's not that weird right?"

"No, it certainly is not."

"Then what's wrong?"

"Nothing. We should continue."

 _Oh_. You were a little disappointed. You saw he was going to kiss you, and then he stopped. Now you wanted your kiss. But something was odd. Something in his attitude changed. But you decided to accept it and keep going.

Hours later, you could hear the chattering of some people at last.

You slowed down the galop when you were arriving to the village. When you entered, some people exclaimed:

"Foreigners!"

But they were smiling.

"Uh... excuse us... is this the way to go to Edrethland? The road ends in the village so..."

"Edrethland?? Why would you want to go there?"

"Business." You said smiling.

"Don't you know there lives an evil demon? He always comes here from time to time and rapt some of our daughters."

"Does he?" you asked concerned.

"Maybe... you guys are going to hunt him?"

"Uh..." It's not like your work were to hunt him, it was only to get those stupid fletchings, but maybe if he was being this problematic it would be better to try and help this people. "Maybe? We... Yes! That's our business. We can't assure anything though. Would you mind keeping it a secr-"

"PEOPLE! THEY ARE HERE TO HELP US. THE HUNTERS."

"No, no, no, shh, please, don't d-"

"THEY ARE GOING TO KILL THE DEMON!"

You facepalmed and sighed. Jesse let out a small, amused huff, however, he wasn't behaving like usual.

"Anyway, we need you to tell us the road to Edrethland."

"Oh, you have to go through the village, the road continues in the other side of it."

"Oh, thank you. Well then, we'll be going."

"Not at all! We have to celebrate it!"

"...Wh- No, it's fine, really."

"C'mon!" The man said to you two, urging you to get down the horse. Somehow, he did it, and was already tying the horse in the pole.

"Really, we don't need any festival to celebrate our... duty."

"It's ok, we were going to celebrate Wummbäla anyways, so you guys can stay and enjoy our little festival. Take it as a little rest before the work. "

"Wummbäla? I've never heard of it. What does it celebrate?" You asked the man. However, it was Jesse who answered.

"Wummbäla it's a festival that celebrates the hunting of werewolves." He said smiling. "They hunt all the werewolves they can and stick their heads in stakes to exhibit them as trophies." He said, still smiling, but his face didn’t look happy at all. And that's when you obviously understood. He knew since that moment earlier in the road what was going on in here, and that's the reason behind his change of mood.

You quickly tried to invent an excuse.

"Oh- uh, sorry but, we actually, we can't stay, we are in a hurry you see and-"

"Nonsense! It's getting late already, it would be bad for you to get stuck with that beast at night, it's better to stay here for the night."

"No, really, we have to-"

"Why not?" asked Jesse. "He's right, it would be a total disadvantage for us."

You looked at him confused, but he just smiled at you. "Let's stay here, we have free food and shelter, right?" He said looking at the man, smiling.

"Right! The man knows!"

"It's decided then, let's take a small break and enjoy the festival before the job."

The man left, and Jesse was going to follow him, when you stopped him with your hand in his chest.

He looked at your hand and then at you.

"Aren't you mad??"

"But darling, why would I be mad?" he said with a tight-lipped smile. He tried to pass through you, but you grabbed his hand, which made him look at you. His face softened a little when he saw the worry in your face. "I'm fine, really."

But you knew he wasn't. There was something weird about him. You thought that he would be upset, but there were more of it, and you couldn't tell what it was. You looked at him. He looked upset, yes, but also... how would you say it? With an intention?

 _Oh_.

He tried again to follow the man, but you were still grabbing his wrist. He turned again to you.

"Hey, I told you I was..." he kept silence when he saw your serious face looking at him. "What's wrong darling?" He said smiling.

But you didn't answer, you just narrowed your eyes still looking at him.

"Hey-"

"I can't believe it."

He furrowed his brows in confusion, then widened his eyes in realization, and after a few seconds he furrowed again his brows, and asked:

"How did you guess it?"

"I can't believe what you were going to do."

"What I’AM going to do." He corrected you.

"Jesse, you can't!"

"Why not? They deserve it. They killed those werewolves just because they wanted to."

"Maybe, maybe it was self-defense, you can't-"

"Self-defense?!"

"SHH!"

"Self-defense?" He repeated lower this time. "Didn't you pay attention when I told you what was Wummbäla about? They go hunt them. Without any reason. They armed themselves and go to find them and kill them. Just because it's a tradition." He looked at you. "You haven't seen the heads in the stakes yet, right?"

"Please stop."

"I'm smelling them. Hours ago."

"Alright, but Jesse-"

"There are three of them. And let me tell you, one of them wasn't even an adult."

"Jesse, stop!"

He remained silent. You brought a hand to your eyes and run it through your forehead and hair.

"Jesse, I know that-"

"What, are you gonna take their side?"

"Of course not! But-"

"Well it looks to me that you are trying to defend them."

"That's not what I'm trying to do. I-"

"Then what?"

"IF you just let me explain!" He waited silently. "Look. I understand perfectly what you are saying but," he looked like he wanted to reply, but decided to wait. "but you just can't go and make a massacre here."

"That's what they did though."

"And just because they did it are you going to do the same?"

"Why not? Isn't that what you call justice? If someone kill somebody don't your justice do the same with that person? Or because I'm a werewolf that doesn't apply to me?

"SHHH!" He was getting nervous, you could tell, he wasn't that stupid to say that at loud in a place like this, and he did. "I don't follow that kind of justice. So that argument is invalid for me."

He sighed irritated. "You don't understand. Of course you wouldn't." He spat.

Those last words hurt you. And you didn't bother to hide that fact.

_"Of course you wouldn't" Does he think so little of me?_

Tears formed in the corner of your eyes and you looked at the ground, swallowing saliva. Jesse realized what he just said, and tried to comfort you, wiping the tears of your eyes, but you slapped his hand away, and started walking into the town.

Jesse stood there a few seconds, unable to think what to do, and run to reach you.

"(y/n), I didn't mean... I just... Please..."

"Please what?" You asked without stopping.

"Don't be like this."

"What do you mean?" He opened his mouth to reply, but you cut him. "Anyway, don't bother, how is going an ignorant human to understand?”

"I KNOW how it sounded, but I didn't mean it in that way. Really. I just meant-"

"I don't care. I don't care! Just, leave me alone."

"But... weren't you concerned a moment ago about what I could do to them?"

"Yes. And I also thought you were better than them." You stopped and looked at him. "But I guess I was wrong with you."

You resumed your walking, leaving Jesse standing there, thinking about your words. Now it was his turn to feel hurt.

_"I also thought you were better than them. But I guess I was wrong with you."_

_Does she mean... is she saying that I'm no better than them? Is she placing me in the same level as them? But at the same time... that means she thought higher of me, that, I was different._

That improved his mood a little, and he realized how easy your words could affect them. He was really angry. Angry because Wummbäla, angry because you wouldn't support him in his decision, angry because your words hurt him and at the same time made him feel better about himself.

_She thought I was different, that I was better. And even like that I still only feel like biting their throats off._

He had confused feelings and that was making him annoyed.

He laughed at his state at loud, and you, that were not too far yet, heard him laugh. And then a grunt. And then some hits. You stopped and looked behind you. You saw Jesse punching and kicking a tree, letting out grunts with each hit. When he was done he rested his forehead in the tree, panting, and after catching up his breath, he looked to your direction, and saw you looking at him.

You saw he caught your gaze and you turned around and resumed, once again, your walk.

Jesse run to you until he was next to you, walking at your same pace.

"What was that, did you went crazy?"

"Listen, I won't do anything to this people. And don't get me wrong, I'm still mad as fuck at them, but I also realized that your opinion matters too much for me."

You stopped and looked at him, surprised at his sudden words. But you quickly regained your composure and kept going.

"I promise. I promise you. I'm doing this for you."

"Is that supposed to comfort me? I'd rather prefer it was your own decision."

"And I understand that. I understood you thought better of me. But I guess I'm not, because I still want to crash their bones," you looked around, worried anybody could hear. "But I won't, because I kind of understand it's not right, and because I want to be with you, and I want you to accept me, and... and..."

You stopped again, and looked at him fondly, with your face slightly laded, you stood on your tiptoes and grabbing his jaw, you kissed his cheek.

You started walking again, but he grabbed you by your jacket and pushed you against the wall of a near house.

"Now, now, I wasn't expecting a reward at all, but if I was going to get one, is that all you are going to do?" He said with his lips almost touching yours.

You smiled, waiting for the kiss.

"ARE YOU PERHAPS A COUPLE?"

You sighed and looked up, jaded. That man was really enthusiastic. And it also looked like you wouldn't get you kiss yet.

But now you were happier. It looked like Jesse wasn't going to kill anybody, and that he kind of understood it was bad, and it also looked like you two were getting... closer.

"C'mon!" said the man, "it's getting dark already and the festival is going to start. We need some help. You," he said pointing at Jesse, "cut wood, and you, I'll bring you to my wife to help her make some pies."

"What if I want to cut wood too?"

"That's no job for a woman."

"..."

Jesse tried to conceal his laughter looking at other side.

_I can kill a demon but can't cut wood. Great._

The man leaded you to his house, where his wife was, and said goodbye to you two.

His wife taught you how to make the pies and asked from you small favors. You slightly saw Jesse several times, but you couldn't get closer to him as you were busy with the wife ordering you around.

It was already dark, and you had started hearing time ago some of the drums that would sound this night. You looked by the window and saw all the people already gathering around the big fire in the center of the town. You headed to the door, but the wife stopped you again.

"Wait! You can't leave like that!"

"What?"

"Your clothes."

"What's wrong with my clothes?"

"They are not really ladylike."

_Why are this people so conservative?_

"Come upstairs, I'll lend you some clothes. You can also spend the night here. We have a spare room. It was of our daughter, you see... but, she left us a year ago."

"Oh... I'm so sorry."

"It's ok. It comforts me the idea of you two slaying that demon who rapt her. Please kill him and bring us his head."

"...Yeah... well, I'll try ma'am."

Later on, you looked yourself in the mirror. You were wearing a pastel yellow dress with white laces. The dress exposed the upper side of your chest and shoulders, but concealed everything else. It fitted you tightly in your arms and waist, but fall loose from there, and because the dress was really thin, it marked your curves where it touched. You also wore a thin necklace, what you believed it was silver.

 _Hm, not bad_. You thought looking at your reflection. You wondered if Jesse would like it.

**0-0-0-0-*Music on*-0-0-0-0**

You left the house and looked for Jesse, and much to your surprise you quicky found him, and went there. In the middle of your way he turned and looked at you, you smiled at him, but he didn't, and instead, you see him furrowing his eyes. When you got in front of him you greeted him:

"Hey!"

But he didn't answer, he just stood there, staring at you, with his mouth slighty opened. You heard the music playing, and you saw how Jesse raised his hand to you and you suddenly felt flustered, but his hand went to your hips and he started doing the same movements the people dancing were doing. You instantly did the same and in that way the two of you started dancing slow at the rythm of the drums. You did circles, changing the direction sometimes, he grabbed your hand and pulled away from you, then coming closer again, Jesse still looking at you with the same expression, with absorted, hypnotized eyes, without breaking eye contact.

His gaze on you worked as a magic spell that made it impossible for you to look away from him. Even though you were not looking, you could see all the villagers dancing, happily chanting, drinking, eating, the Don Juan trying to flirt with the girls, the people fanning the fire, villagers with wolves masks frightening people, kids playing here and there... there were a lot going on around you, and yet, you felt like if there were only the two of you here.

You felt how warm and strong and delicate at the same time his hand was, and you wondered if it would feel like that in other parts of your body too. You wanted it. You wanted to feel his touch. You were now well aware of your feelings, and you didn't deny them. You wanted him to kiss you and see how his lips felt on yours, pressing them, biting them. You wanted to kiss his neck and feel his beard in your face. You wanted to touch him, to trace his muscles, scratch them. You wanted to feel his weigh on top of you, making you feel good.

Some of the instruments stopped playing, and other few remained, what people understood like a little break to rest a moment before continuing dancing. Jesse stopped and so did you. He again stood there, staring at you, without moving. You raised your hand and rested in his abs, he looked at your hand and then at you, you got a step more closer to him, your hand still there, and traced your hand to his chest, you felt his chest moving faster, and you smiled. You grabbed the upper part of his coat with both hands, and pulled him down to your heigh, you planted your lips with force in his and not a second later he was kissing you back, he traced your waist and chest with his hand, while the other one were grabbing your jaw, your hand were now grabbing his belt, and the other behind his neck, grabbing his hair, tugging it a little.

He started to walk in front of you, making you walk backwards, until you were behind some villager's house. You weren't too far from the party, you could still hear the music and the people, see the light of the fire and smell some of the food. He pushed you against the wall, kissing you fiercely. _God_. You loved his lips, they were fiercefull, strong and soft, accompanied with his wet and warm tongue. You could feel his beard and the raspy shaven parts rubbing in you your chin, while he would touch everwhere of your body. You stroked his chest and and abs, until going down to his croth, where you pressed your hand. He exhaled a grunt in your mouth, what sent shivers to your belly. You unbuckled his belt and pulled down his pants.

He broke the kiss to look at you. He were panting, with red and wet lips, it was a new view for you. Even though Jesse wanted to do the whole thing, he didn't know how far you would go, but your last action cleared it up. He resumed his kissed now in your jaw, but you grabbed him and put him in your place, leaning his back agains the wall. You pulled down his underwear, he of course were hard already, probably since the first moment he saw you this night, and you grabbed his cock putting the tip on your mouth, what made him hiss and pull back his head. You tried to put it enterly in your mouth, but you were having some troubles because of his huge lenght, you let out a frustrated sound and licked the whole length until it was covered in saliva, giving small sucks everywhere, until he grabbed you and put you again in your first position, but this time he lifted you up against the wall, holding your hips with his strong hands, and you twisted your legs around his hips. He lifted your dress up and pulled your underwear down.

He licked his finger and introduced it in you, and because in entered without effort he did the same with the second, and pulled away, he started to kiss your neck, but suddenly something burnt him and he rapidly pulled away. He looked frowned at your neck and with a strong hand he tore off the necklace from your neck and threw it to the ground.

"Jesse! That's not mine! Be caref-!" But he shuted you up with his lips again.

He finally put his tip in your entrance, that slowly got inside without problem, both of you hissed. You felt a nice sensation coming from your streched insides, a pleasant burn. He only shoved in half of his lenght at first, so you could accostume to it, and pounded slowly, every time going more inside, kissing you at the same time, panting everytime you broke the kiss.

You suddenly realized what you were doing. You were having sex. With Jesse. A werewolf. A fucking werewolf. The werewolf you met some days ago tied up in a pole. You didn't trust him at all at first, and now you where feeling more than lust for him. And everything happened so fast.

Jesse was already completedly in, and you felt the pleasure of having all your insides stretched, you even felt with each thrust his cock touching the end of them.

But after repetedly thrusts, it was when you started feeling the real pleasure. Jesse noticed your change of attitude and started thrusting faster, and you whined, little tears started to form in the corner of your eyes, that fell because of the action of the thrusts.

"Ahhh... baby..." he exhaled. Those were his first words to you since this morning.

You grabbed him by his coat while he grabbed you by your hip and shouder. Your legs bounced at each side of him at the rythm of his pounds. He started pounding deeper and you whined louder, he letting out some grunts too. Tears formered faster and wouldn't stop coming out due to the bliss you were experimenting.

He stopped a few seconds, to resume his pounding even deeper and faster, rubbing the spot he already noticed you liked. Your eyes rolled up at the sudden sensation and you couldn't help but start moaning, feeling your climax near.

Jesse couldn't believe how much you turned him on seeing you in such a condition, the way you so desperated grabbed his clothes, mouth red, wet and slighty opened, eyes rolled up and moaning all the time, sometimes choking slighty on your own saliva.

With a few more fast thrusts you reached to your orgasm, arching your back, and tighting your muscles, the ones around Jesse's cock too, what made him let out a big grunt. He stopped to not over estimulate you. But he hadn't had his yet. Of course not. You remembered the so famous werewolves' libido.

After a moment, he separated you from the wall and hugged you tightly to him, with him still inside of you. You entwined your legs around his back, and your arms around his neck, hiding your face in the crook of his neck. His chin rested in your shoulder while pounding you up and down fast, making your body jump with each thrust.

Because of the moans that started leaving his mouth and the erratic pounding he were giving you, you understood he was reaching to his orgasm too, and you embraced him harder. Even though this time it was for him, you were feeling another orgasm coming again. You irremediably started moaning again, what made him moan in the same way, until you screamed with your mouth hid in his neck, and after feeling the changes in your body and hearing your moans he finally orgasmed, giving you two deep more thrusts, making sure to fill you up. He stayed there, holding you tight, panting in your neck, you caring his back neck.

He finally raised his head from your neck and kissed you, just pressing his lips on yours, and pulled away.

"I love you."

You smiled.

"I love you too."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys liked it and as always thank you so much for your comments!!!! <3<3<3
> 
> ♡♡♡ Feedback is always appreciated ♡♡♡


	10. Chapter 10

You felt the soft bed beneath you before opening your eyes.  You whined a little, moving between the sheets, when slowly, last night's memories came back to your mind. You opened your eyes and looked where you were. You recognized the room the wife told you could spend the night in. You saw something bright in the nightstand and took it in your hands. It was the silver necklace, that, luckily, didn't suffer any damage when Jesse tore it off your neck. You put it back in the nightstand and looked for your own clothes. You wondered where Jesse could be.

While dressing up, a dark thought crossed your mind. You didn't remember anything from last night after you two had sex. _Maybe I fell asleep?_ Jesse probably brought you back to the house. But did he sleep with you? Where was he now? He couldn't have done anything to the villagers, right? Not after what he told you.

You were about to open the door after being fully prepared, when it opened just to show Jesse with metal tray with some food in it.

"Honey! You are awake!" He said smiling. "I was gonna, bring you breakfast to bed but, I guess I'm a little late."

"Oh, it's fine! I can still eat here." You sat in the middle of the bed and he brought the tray placing it there. He sat too but with only one leg in the bed, the other on the floor.

"Uhm... where were you?"

"Oh, sorry hon, the man called me to help him in the farm, I didn't want to go at all, but, anyways. I wanted you to wake up with me by your side. Sorry. They also called me to have breakfast. I didn't hold back, they said I ate like a werewolf, HAHA."

 _Awwwww, he is so cute_. You felt so bad you thought those things about him. You stared fondly at him, he, smiling, laded slightly his head and raised one eyebrow, asking the why of your gaze. You settled aside the stray in the bed and got closer to hug him tightly. He returned the hug and even though it was almost imperceptible, you noticed how he smelled your hair in one inhalation. He then pushed you on the bed and asked:

"Round two?"

But in that moment, both of you heard your stomach grumbling.

"..."

"Ok, breakfast first." He said smiling.

While you were eating, you asked:

"What time is it?"

"I believe it's past high noon."

"PAST HIGHNOON? That's... That's late. But we can't put off our trip again."

You finished breakfast and the two of you headed outside. Almost all the villagers were there wishing you luck to hunt the demon and asking you to bring his head.

After some time riding, you arrived to a fork in the road that divided it in two paths. One of them didn't look different from the one you were traveling by, but the other... the other was much darker because of the big and close trees. You looked at the wooden sign in front of you. Edrethland were pointing to that path. You sighed and brought the palm of your hand to your face, you were totally unimpressed. Of course the demon wouldn't live in a green meadow surrounded by pretty flowers. With a swift motion, you indicated the horse to turn that way.

You were going slower now, careful of your surroundings.

"Where are we exactly going? How do we look for him?" Jesse whispered.

"I have no idea. Let's just keep going, he is not probably going to be on the edge of the forest."

After some time, the forest was almost dark, and you couldn't tell if it was night or just the fault of the vegetation. You stopped the horse and got down, followed by Jesse.

"Maybe we don't need to look for him. Maybe he can come to find us."

And you were right, as the so-called demon was very aware of your presence since the moment to stepped into the forest.

You saw Jesse sniffing the air with his head slightly raised. "So, are we gonna camp here?" He said taking his hat off.

"Yes, we'll wait here, and let's see what happens." You turned away to prepare your stay. When you looked again to Jesse he was shirtless and already taking his pants off.

"Uh-...uhmm... Jesse? What are you doing?"

"Preparing myself."

"F-for what??"

"The fight. I can smell them." You instantly got serious.

"Them?"

"Yes, I don't recognize this smell. So, I suppose it's them."

"But, them?"

"There are two." He said and took of his underwear. You automatically turned away, kind of embarrassed, and then you remembered what you did with him last night. You shouldn't be embarrassed by now right? You slowly turned back but instead of Jesse you saw and enormous, dark brown wolf staring at you. Your heart started to pound furiously, and you felt like your lungs run out of air. You weren’t prepared to see that all of a sudden.

You had to admit that you were kind of scared. Last time you saw a werewolf he almost ripped your face off.  Even though you knew it was Jesse, your heart didn't stop pounding with fury. It was such a strong feeling, provoked from the view of the giant, menacing wolf in front of you, the darkness of the forest made it even more scary. He got a step closer and you automatically brought your hand to your gun. And he stopped. And so did you. You didn't want to shoot. You weren't going to. You knew it was Jesse and that he wouldn't attack you.  But it was a reflex.

Jesse was expectant. It was the first time he showed himself in this form to you. He trusted you and he knew you wouldn't try anything to him, even though when you touched your gun. He knew you were scared. He could hear your heart loud and clear.

 _What do I do?_ He thought.

You suddenly saw how the giant wolf -Jesse- sat down in his place. That caught you off guard and you let go the air you were holding. You started to calm yourself and think straight again.

The wolf this time, laid in the ground with his snout touching the ground.

He was doing this to look less dangerous and more inoffensive to you. You understood what he was doing and you very much appreciated it. You walked slowly to him until you were in the very front of him. He looked at you with his bright, yellow eyes from down, waiting patiently for you to get used to him.

You let out a small, nervous, laugh, and exclaimed, in a whisper.

"Holy fuck, Jesse."

He raised his head to be at your height, but never opening his mouth, just in case the view of his big, pointy teeth would take you by surprise.

"Jesse." You said out loud to remind yourself what you were seeing.

He waved his tail gently from side to side and pulled back his ears, with his eyes almost closed. That totally relaxed you. He seemed so friendly right now. You slowly raised a hand and touched his head, and he moved it towards your hand, touching his wet nose in the motion. He didn't want to do any sudden movement, but he couldn't help himself when he felt your touch. He decided to risk himself and lick your hand.

You let out a gasp, but you weren't scared, just surprised. He rolled in his back and had his belly showing now.

"Do you want me to pet you?" You said smiling.

He let out a low growling that didn’t look threatening at all. You petted slowly his belly to end up enthusiastically, but his belly was enormous, so you concentrated in his neck with both hands, each at each side of it. You looked at him and he was staring back at you. You stopped, and remained in that position for a few seconds, both of you staring at each other. Then he, with a swift motion, raised his head and started licking your mouth and nose. 

You put on a grimace face and pulled him away.

"Ugh- Jesse!" He stared at you moving more enthusiastically his tail, but then he stopped dead, and raised high his ears and looked behind you. He stood up and moved in front of you, pulling you back in the motion. You wanted to look in front of you, but Jesse was too big.

You walked next to him to see a human figure some feet away from you. You couldn't see very well, but you supposed it was the demon. His skin was a mix of blue and grey, and you couldn't see his eyes very well, but you only saw white while looking at him.

Jesse started to snarl at him, surprising you with the very loud sound emitting from his throat.

_No, no, no._

"Jesse, wait." He didn't stop looking at him, but he stopped snarling. "Excuse us, are you perhaps..." _Wait. What should I ask him?_ "Uhm, are you-"

"Back off." He simply said.

"Excuse us, we are looking for something, uhm, can I assume you are a demon, right?" This conversation was so stupid, but you didn't even know if he were the demon you were looking for. Is that the one who possess the red fletchings? Are there any more demons that possesses red fletchings? Is he the one kidnapping the girls from the last town?

He didn't answer, but instead, shot an arrow in front of your feet. You stepped back surprised and Jesse let out another aggressive snarl.

"Jesse! Calm down!" That demon didn't want to kill you, not at least for now. That arrow was a warning, or else he would have shoot directly at you. You looked at the arrow in front of your, but its fletching was blue.

You took it off the ground and waved it in front of you. "Do you have one of these but in red?"

He shot again and this time it passed inches away from your face.

"I will not repeat myself." He spat with hate in his voice.

"Looks like words won't do. I believe this grumpy fuck is the one the witch told us about." You said to Jesse, and he let out a small grunt in agreement. You were about to explain the plan to Jesse when he charged to him.

"Jesse!"

In two big jumps he was in front of the demon, who shoot an arrow to Jesse, but he dodged it and tried to bite him. You wanted to fight too, but he was being so violent with the demon that you couldn't do anything. If you shoot, you may hit Jesse, and let's not talk about your sword, completely useless in the mess those two were involved.

Several minutes passed, and the demon had shot Jesse once in his shoulder, but, either it was nothing to him, or he didn't feel it in the heat of the fight. Instead, he had bite the demon in his arm and it looked pretty serious, you could see his flesh tore off a little. Suddenly, Jesse sunk his teeth in his waist and threw him feets away, he rolled through the forest ground until he finally stopped, it took him some seconds to incorporate himself again, when he suddenly realized that, even far away, you were alone, in front of him.

He took out again another arrow but this time he pointed to you, Jesse was going to jump to him when the demon spoke.

"Stop."

Jesse and the demon looked at each other, while you looked at both of them, expecting to see what was going to happen. The demon spoke again.

"This is over." He said, still looking at Jesse. "If you move... I'll shoot her... If you don't move..." he tensed even more the string of the bow. "I'll shoot her."

A few seconds passed in while you two understood what was about to happen.

Like if they were the last moments of your life, everything went silent, and you saw how the demon's fingers smoothly let out the arrow he was pointing at you, and even though it was thin and it was dark in the forest, you could see it, slowly, getting closer to you. You wanted to shut down your eyes to not see your death approaching, but you couldn't move your eyes away from it.

When you really thought everything was over, you saw how a human figure jumped in front of you and with a sword deflected the arrow that was coming your way.

You fell to the ground because of the shock, and let out the air you were holding, relieved, and panted in the ground. You looked the back of the man and you recognized him.

"Genji..." you told the man in front of you.

But he ignored you and instead talked to the demon in front of him.

"Hello brother! Long time no see."

"Genji... You are standing in my way. Move out."

"Yeah uh... that's not gonna happen."

He shot another arrow to Genji, but he without effort deflected it again, but this time, the arrow flew off to where Jesse was standing, almost hitting him. He snarled at the sudden action.

"Hey!" You shouted annoyed to Genji. He, for the first time, turned around and looked down at you, he grabbed your arm with force and forced you to stand up.

"Up, little girl. We're leaving.” He said, dragging you from the place.

"Hey! no!!" You shouted, complaining, but he was stronger and was succeeding in his way of taking you away from the place.

Jesse snarled stronger this time and looked towards Genji, who, after hearing Jesse's menacing snarl, looked at him with narrowed eyes. Using his free hand, he threw three of those metal stars you've seen already to Jesse, who dodged them almost at the last time, making him angrier.

"HEY!" you shouted angrier too. Using Genji's hand, the one which was grabbing you, you did a lock that contorted his arm, making him let out a small grunt, and without losing a second, you gave him and elbow in his chin.

Now that you were free you run to where Jesse was. When Genji saw you, he brought his palm to his eyes, sighing.

At this point, all of you made a triangle, each one in every corner.

_Ok, this is not lost yet._

"Ok, looks like every one of us wants something different. Mayb-"

"I just want you to come with me." Said Genji.

"I can accept that. I just want everybody out of here." Said the other demon.

"Yeah but I don't want to go with you" you said looking at Genji, "and I won't leave until at least you let me talk with you."

"I have no intentions of talking to people who wants my head."

"Well maybe if you didn't kidnap those girls people wouldn't want your head." You snapped at him.

"I haven't done such a thing. You just say the same nonsense as the other villagers."

"...Have you not?"

"No."

 _Hm_.

"Well, that brings me to my first point. I just want to talk to you. Is that too much to ask? You just started shooting arrows at me instead of letting me speak."

"Why do you want to talk with me?"

"I think you owns something that I need."

"What makes you think I have it?"

"...Your grumpy face." You said with almost inaudible voice.

"What?"

"I mean! I don't even know if you have it or not. That's why I wanted to speak to you first."

He narrowed his eyes looking at you.

"Very well."

_YES!_

You then remembered Jesse's shoulder and turned back to him.

You examined it the wound and thought the best way to extract it.

"I'm going to take it off." You said to Jesse, so he would be prepared. But you took your time, you didn't want to provoke him too much pain. But the wait made Genji impatient, and he exclaimed:

"Oh, please." And he walked to Jesse with the intention of extracting it himself, but Jesse's loud growl stopped him, ang Genji reflexively took out some of the stars.

"Stop. Both of you." Exclaimed the other demon. "Let me do it myself." He said, looking to Jesse's wolf eyes. He waited there until Jesse lowered his head as a sign of agreement. The demon got closer and placed one hand in his furry shoulder and the other around the arrow. He made pressure around the wound and with a quick movement he took it off. Jesse let out a small grunt, but it didn't look very painful.

"Turn back. It's bad manners to enter your host's home in that way."

Jesse returned to his human form.

And even though it wasn't the moment for that, you got flustered again when you saw his naked body. Now that you were used to see him in clothes, seeing him naked made you flushed like everyone else would.

"You ok?" He asked you, and you smile to him.

"I should ask you that."

He let out a short chuckle, and Genji rolled his eyes. He went to retrieve his clothes and get dressed again, leaving you between the two demons. The archer was waiting patiently, while Genji was looking at you with crossed arms.

"What?" You asked him, but he didn't answer. You haven't forgot about your last fight. You still had a lot of things to ask him, but now wasn't the moment. You saw how the archer started walking into the forest, followed by Genji. You looked at Jesse and he was already coming your way.

After a moment, you two were following the two demons.

_"Hello brother"_

_Hm, so they are siblings. Real siblings?_ While you could tell just one or two similarities between the two of them, there were way more differences. Starting for their personalities. While Genji looked rebel, independent, a flirter and a joker, his brother looked calm, serious, and centered. Your thoughts came back to Jesse again, and your turned to him, looking at his shoulder.

"Are you ok? Should we look for some medicinal herbs?"

"Nah, I'm ok babe, it's probably almost closed already. I would be more worried about him." He said pointing with his hand to the archer.

_Oh. That's right._

He was undoubtedly more wounded than Jesse.

"Hey, are you ok archer?" Shouted Jesse from behind. But the demon didn't answer. "Sorry about your arm."

"It'll be fine."

Jesse shrugged at you, satisfied with his answer.

Soon, you arrived to what appeared to be a tree house. An enormous tree covered in green, wet moss, with a simple door in the front.

You saw him opening the door and letting Genji come inside, then waited for you two to do the same. Once you were inside, he closed the door and went ahead of you. Genji followed him and so did you two.

"Wow... I see you haven't changed anything since the last time I was here."

"Shut up."

He leaded you to a space room that would be the living room in a normal house.

"Take a seat."

He was taking so much trouble just to speak a minute to him. He left and some minutes after he came back with some mugs for each of you and put them in the table. He sat, and said:

"Let me introduce myself. My name is Hanzo, and this one is my brother Genji, but it looks like you know him already."

 _Well, and good manners._ You added in his description. You just wanted to ask a question, but he wanted to discuss it inside his house, drinking tea. _Hm. I like this man_.

"My name is (y/n)." You looked at Jesse.

"Jesse." He said.

"It's an honor to meet both of you." _Yeah, I like him_. "What is it that you wanted to speak of?"

"Uh, you see, we need the red fletchings of your arrows... I think." You said the last part lower, almost to yourself.

He narrowed his eyes at you.

"Why mines?"

"Uh... I don't... really know? She just asked me for those in special. I mean, I think she referred to yours, she said a demon in Edrethland got them." You decided to omit the part of the grumpy face.

"Who is she?"

"A witch."

"Why would she ask you such a thing?"

"It was as a way to pay her a favor she did for us." Jesse sighed next to you, feeling a little guilty, and you, that understood his sigh, just placed your hand in his tight to comfort him. "That's why we are here. So... if it was possible..."

"I'll tell you why she wants them so bad. These arrows are made of a material already extinguished, and it possesses magical abilities that can be used for different purposes."

"Oh..." you were surprised and at the same time worried. If they were so important, chances were that he wouldn't be willing to hand them. Maybe you could return to the witch and explain it to her. Maybe she would understand and give you another mission. Or maybe not.

You swallowed saliva.

He kept a few second looking at you. You could now see him well in the light of the fire. He had black silky hair, just like his brother, but he had his tied up behind his head. His skin was indeed a greyish blue and bright, white eyes. He also had beard and it was well trimmed, to your surprise, you wouldn't have expected a demon who lived in the forest to pay attention to something that trivial. But then again, you thought that a man like him would do pay attention to details. He also had red paintings (or so you believed it was) in his face and the only bare arm you could see. He was wearing a white tunic or so you would call it, and it looked like, in a way, what Genji wore.

He finally sighed and left the room, only to come back again with an arrow.

An arrow with a red fletching.

He stood there, waiting for you to stand up too. You did so and stood in front of him.

Jesse stayed in his place and Genji did so as well. Genji, who hadn't stop looking at Jesse with narrowed eyes since they sat there. Jesse ignored him as he was more interested in your conversation with Hanzo.

He handed the arrow to you and you raised your hand to take it, but he pulled it away before you touched it.

"I'll give it to you with one condition."

 _Hell_. That one condition should be to the witch, not you, you are only the messenger.

"I don't care how, but you must stop all those villagers coming here. Is not that they represent any danger to me, but they are starting to make me angry. I haven't done anything to them, so I should not be molested."

"How exactly do I do that?"

"I'll leave it at your imagination."

 _"_ Alright." You'll see what you could do about it.

He handed again the arrow and this time he didn't pull away. You took it between your fingers. But you didn't feel anything special.

"Thank you so much." Hanzo gave you a gentle smile and you smiled too, genuinely happy. "Well, I think we should be going."

Jesse stood up and went next to you.

"Thank you. Uhm, are you sure you are ok?" He said pointing at his arm.

"Yes, it will heal without leaving any scar."

"UHM, are you sure?" Jesse said, looking at his tore up flesh.

"Yes."

 _Alright_. Thought Jesse. _Maybe he really means it_.

"Good bye." You said, followed by Jesse, and headed to the door.

Genji was going to follow you two when his brother stopped him with his hand in his shoulder.

"Is she..."

"Yes."

Genji waved his brother and left the house. He saw you looking everywhere around you, Jesse looking at you amused.

"Uhm... Jesse?"

"Alright babe."

You couldn't tell at all the way back at the main road. To Jesse, however, it was piece of cake.

"Wait," said Genji, dragging you by your arm again, pulling you away from Jesse, "we need to talk."

Jesse was going to jump when you talked.

"That is true, we need to talk." You said, much to the surprise of Jesse. You got rid of his arm and looked defensively at him.

"Explain me now everything. Why did you know all those things?"

But he ignored you and instead started with what he wanted to tell you.

"You need to get away from him." He said, pointing at Jesse, without looking at him.

"Excuse me?"

"I DON'T approve this."

"And who are you exactly to approve anything at all?"

"Hey, you got a problem?" Said Jesse who approached both of you.

"Back off, flea bag." He said, giving him a side-eye.

Jesse grabbed him by his scarf and Genji brought his hand to his sword.

"Hey! No! Stop! Both of you!" But none of them moved. "I said stop." After some seconds, Jesse was the first one to drop his grip in Genji's scarf. But Genji didn't move his hand from the sword. "Genji." He finally relaxed and looked again to you.

"Werewolves are dangerous beasts. He can-"

"I know perfectly well what a werewolf is capable of."

"So why are you letting him be with you?"

"Because I trust him!" Jesse looked content at you, unlike Genji, who was looking at you with a serious face and crossed arms. "Anyway, who are you to be talking about him being dangerous?" He looked at you surprised, releasing a little his crossed arms. "If I don't remember wrong you killed all those people and hunters because you fucking wanted. It was you who fought me and hurt me. And you are calling him dangerous? Maybe he is but he hasn’t done any harm to me."

"Not yet. And maybe we fought but it was because you wanted to. Also, I didn't kill you when I very could have done so."

"And do I have to thank you for not killing me?"

"...What I'm trying to say is-"

"I don't fucking care about what you are trying to say. Why should I trust you? You haven't even answered any of my questions."

"Ugh... I told you already. I was there. All those times."

"Yes. I know. But why? Why were you there? Why did you... protect me? Why did you get me out of the frozen lake?"

"Isn't that just enough to trust me? The fact that I've saved your ass all those times?"

You thought about that. It's true that he has helped you, and there were probably more times that you didn't even know he did. And that's something that you were thankful, but...

"But why?"

He sighed. He looked like he really didn't want to tell you.

"Thank you." Genji looked surprised at you. "Look, I don't know, at all, why you did it, or what you wanted to get by doing it, and I won't if you don't tell me. But truth is, that you have gotten me out of some bad situations back then, and I really appreciate that." You kept silence for a few seconds, and inhaled. "But that's it. I don't see why you have any right to decide for me or think for me, and you look like you are not going to tell me why I should trust you either. So, don't tell me again what to do. Again, I'm thankful for what you have done for me, really, but it's ok, you don't have to do it again." You looked at the ground, and then at him again. "Good bye."

You started walking away followed by Jesse. And after some steps, you heard Genji.

"I made a deal. With your mother." You widened your eyes and turned back to him, but he wasn't there anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you may have noticed chapters are starting to be longer, they are now like two chapters compared to the ones I started doing, I'm doing this cause I have a lot to write lol, and I think you guys will apreciate it more like this, so you don't have to wait too much every week 
> 
> I hope you guys are liking it so faaaaaaar! 
> 
> ♡♡♡ Feedback is always appreciated ♡♡♡


	11. Chapter 11

Three days had passed since the demon brothers meeting, and since then, Jesse and you had not talked much. Just after leaving the forest, you saw the witch waiting for you.

"I believe you have something for me" she had said smiling. You handed her the arrow and she broke it, much to your horror, just keeping the fletching part. You decided to keep the rest of the arrow, even though it was useless.

"Next thing I will ask from you, is blood."

"B-blood?"

"Yes, from a vampire, one in particular."

"Uh...."

"Yes?"

How could you tell her that a vampire wasn't an easy thing to deal with? Let's not talk about getting blood from them. Would she even hear what you had to say?

"Nothing."

"Have you heard about Thorndrael Kingdom?"

"Uhh yes I’ve heard of it."

"Do you know about its king?"

"Mmm... no."

She giggled and said: "Can you guess who’s the vampire I want you to get blood from?"

...

"It can't be..."

"Yes, it is!" She had said with triumphal voice and clapping her hands once.

After that, she had given you and empty phial, which you had to fill with his blood, and disappeared from there.

And since that moment you didn't talk too much, and so did Jesse.

You were drowning in your thoughts, concerned about what Genji had told you.

_A deal with my mother? What does that mean? Did he promise my mother he would protect me? Why would she even do that to begin with? Also, mom is dead so... shouldn't he be free from the deal already? Maybe he doesn't know he is free? Oh, what a nonsense, of course he would know. So...  does he own now... my mother's... soul?_

That solely idea disgusted you. But now you understood Genji a little better, and his persistency on getting away from Jesse _specifically_. You thought about Jesse. He's been so silent these days. So, did you, of course, but it was normal for you, but not for a person like him.

"Jesse, you okay?"

"Uh? Uh, sure."

_See?_

Jesse was concerned about his own problems.

_Who is this Genji guy and why did he look so close to her? And on top of that it looks like he's been protecting her all this time._

It made him jealous, he wanted to be the only one who could do that. Even though he knew it was impossible for him to have done that in the past.

_But I could have done it in Edrethland. I was there to help. But I couldn't stop that arrow that demon deflected in the last second. She would have died if he hadn’t been there._

_UGH_

He was so mad. He kept thinking about all the things Genji said about him.

_What if... maybe he is right? What if I'm dangerous to her? Maybe I really should just...let her go... After all, we are doing these missions because of me, she got hurt because of me, I wanted to expose us going wolf form, and I couldn't protect her when I had to... Maybe she is better without me..._

"Jesse."

_I didn't even notice the smell of Genji was the one of the ghoul. I couldn't recognize it in the forest nor when (y/n) came back to Gaban's inn that night._

"Jesse!"

_Could I be more useless?_

"Hey!! Jesseee! Hello???" You said scratching his hair.

He blinked twice and looked slightly back, as he were the one riding. "Yes?"

"What were you thinking? I called you three times."

"..."

"We are arriving."

"Are we?"

"Yes, we just past a sign that confirmed it."

"Oh."

"Are you sure you are ok? I know I haven't talked much but you??"

"Everything's fine dear!" he said smiling, so his voice would sound cheered up.

You sighed. Something was definitely off. You hugged him completely from behind and rested your face in his back, what made Jesse feel even worse. He liked you so much he didn't want to part away. But he had to think what the best would be for you. He should stay with you during the five missions, because after all, it was his fault you had to be doing these, and then get away. He shouldn’t do it again with you, and he should stop his  flirting behavior too.

"How are we even gonna get blood from the king?" You said, unaware of Jesse's thoughts. "It's not like we can ask him, and I'm not going to kill him. He looks like just a king so far and the kingdom is also doing well, as I heard, who cares if he's a vampire? I don't see him as a bad person. Not yet at least." You talked with your cheek rested in Jesse's back.

But Jesse was still concerned about his thoughts.

_Should I tell her I'm going to leave after we get the five things? That we shouldn’t keep doing what we already did? Maybe I don't even need to tell her. What am I to her in the first place? Maybe that night meant nothing to her, and she expected to never happen again, or that it was just some fun night. Maybe she's even ok with me leaving._

Without realizing it, you had just arrived at Thorndrael Kingdom, it was the biggest one you two had seen until now. It looked vivid, full of people, everyone doing their business. You got down the horse and smiled astonished around you. Jesse couldn't help but smile fondly when looking at you so marveled.

"Where should we start?" You said excited to him. But you didn't wait for his answer. You grabbed him by his wrist and dragged him into the crowd. You were walking when someone bumped into you, making you get separated from Jesse. You tried to apologize but it looked like the person had gone already.  You looked behind for Jesse but you couldn’t find him, even when you called him, so you just decided to keep going, he would find you later, probably. You were marveled at how big this and prosper this kingdom was.

"Here!" A man said to you. "A red apple for the pretty lady!" You thanked the man and kept walking among the people. You were definitely enjoying this kingdom. You were going to bite the apple when another person bumped into you, making the apple fall from your hand. _Well, crowds had their disadvantages too_ , you thought. You bent to take the apple but another hand took it first. You incorporated just to see a tall man, almost as tall as Jesse, standing before you. You couldn’t see him well because of the hood he was wearing, only part of his nose, mouth and beard. He smiled and handed you the apple.

"Thank you." You told the man, smiling.

"It's nothing. You don't look from here." He said with interest in his voice.

"Oh, no, I'm just... travelling."

"Ahh, I hope you are enjoying the kingdom, then."

"Oh, sure I am! Everything is so vivid and big and, there’s everything everywhere…" you said a little awkwardly.

The man just stared at you, or so you supposed, when he suddenly sniffed the air, or so you think he did, as it was kind of subtle, and the smile of the man grew larger. He hugged you tight, much to your surprise, and he didn't pulled away until you coughed, indicating him to pull away.

"Uh..."

"It was nice talking to you." The man said.

"…Yeah! You too." And this being said, the man passed through you and disappeared among the people.

_Ummmm.... ok._

Jesse used that bump to get away from you. He couldn't keep like this. He wouldn't be able to stop behaving like he used to if he was with you. He came to the conclusion that it was better to end things right now, as soon as possible.

He started to walk when he captured your smell, and... something else. He furrowed his eyebrows and followed the smell, finding you at last.

You turned back just to see, some steps away from you, Jesse coming to you. You smiled to him and called his name, as a greeting, but he was furrowing his eyebrows at you. He stopped in front of you and sniffed the air, and he suddenly hugged you tight, just like the man from before, but Jesse being more persistent, as he was rubbing his cheek in yours.

"Jesse?" You said almost laughing.

Suddenly he stopped dead.

_Shit, I shouldn't have done that. I was supposed to get away from her. But she was stinking of v-_

"Jesse?" you asked again, smiling. But he was still serious.

"(y/n) we need to talk.

"Mmmm, ok?"

He leaded you to a place where there were less people,  so you could talk.

"We uhh..." he started, you curious of what he had to say. "I should leave."

"Oh, alright. Where?"

"No, I mean, maybe we could look for the things the witch asked separately?."

"Uh- but, like, we can go together." You said confused.

"Yeah but this way it’ll be faster. Look, what I'm trying to say is, I'll leave."

_..._

"What?"

"I'll leave." He didn't know what else to say.

"Do you mean... I mean, I..." you shook your head. "So, you are-" you were a confused mess. You didn't understand why he wanted to leave so suddenly. "But, why? I thought that... that... you... and me..."

He didn't say anything.

"So, you'll leave me."

"Yes."

"But..." _you said you loved me_. "Is this something I did? I don't know if-"

"No, no (y/n) you didn't do anything.” He hurried to answer. “I just, I want to leave, that's all. Thank you for rescuing me, and making that deal with the witch, I'll help with the missions in my own, I promise."

 You brought your hand to your head and looked aside, without believing it, trying to hold your tears, you coughed so you could form words in your throat.

"Ok, I uh... I'm sorry, I think I... misunderstood things." You said without looking at him. A silence took place between you two, in the middle of the noisy city.

"Well I guess, I'll be, I don't know, I... I'll look around." You gestured with your hand around the city, awkwardly.

You wanted to cry, but not in front of him. You went to the edge of the forest and burst into tears.

_What is wrong with him?? He said, that..._

Your own cries wouldn't even let you think straight.

_But why was he still... Why does he want to leave all of a sudden? Maybe something happened? Or maybe he really just wants to leave? I suppose it's fine, I can't force him to stay but, couldn’t he just have left after releasing him from Gaban's inn? Why did he follow me after that? Did he just want to bang me? Is that it? And now he's bored of me? Oh god, maybe I'm just making a fuss out of all of this? I just stopped being interesting to him, that can happen, right?_

_Maybe I really misunderstood things. Maybe his way of acting was just his natural behavior, werewolves are like that, and last night was just a fun night, and that "I love you" was the heat of the moment..._

You burst into tears again, thinking that maybe you were doing a big fuss out of something that wasn't, but even like that you felt so bad, and even though Jesse may have not done anything really wrong, it made you be mad at him, because you did love him, in this few days you really started liking him so much, and now you had to stop feeling this way.

Somehow, it was already dark. You had your eyes irritated and your throat raspy from crying. When you felt a hand in your shoulder.

_Jesse?_

You turned around, but it wasn't him. Instead, you recognized the man from this morning, the one in the hood.

"Are you ok?"

"..."

"Sorry, it's obvious you are not." He stayed there, kneeling next to you, when he finally sat. He removed his hood and you looked at him. His skin was tan, as you had seen earlier, with dark beard, and short, slightly wavy hair of the same color. Unlike his eyes, which were a light brown, with a hint of, what you would say red. But the most notable feature of his face were some scars that crossed his face, and you wondered how they happened to him. You were absorbed with his face when he smiled, bringing you back to reality.

"Do you have anywhere to stay the night?"

"Oh..." You remembered you hadn't looked for any inn after what happened with Jesse. "I uh..."

"I'm sorry if this sounds weird. I just want to offer you a place to spend the night. No weird intentions."

This man was really polite, you have noticed, and right now the easiest thing was to accept the offer. You didn't think he was going to do anything weird, and if he happened to do it, well, it’s not like you didn’t know how to defend yourself, so you just said yes.

"Alright." He said smiling, standing up, tending a hand to help you stand too.

"You don't want to talk about it?" He said, obviously referring at your pitiful state. You denied with your head, and he nodded once. He leaded you to a horse, much for your surprise. He mounted the horse and then helped you do the same. After some time, you noticed how he was going to the city’s center, where most of the people lived, so you guessed the home of this man wasn't that humble.

"Can I ask your name?" you said.

"Sure thing. My name is Gabriel. What's the lady's name?"

"(y/n)."

"(y/n), nice to meet you, officially."

"Nice to meet you too." You said smiling, at least something good happened after Jesse. Jesse. You wondered where he would spend the night.

_He didn't have any money with him or anything, what if he's going to sleep outside with this co-... Well, that has nothing to do with me now._

But even like that, you couldn't help but feel worried about him.

You were immersed in your thoughts when you heard the horse's gallop emitted a different sound. You looked around you and saw you were crossing a stone's bridge that ended in a... castle?

"Um, Gabriel? Where are we heading?"

"To the castle, of course."

"To the castle? Why?"

But he stopped in front of some guards, that saluted him respectfully.

"King Reyes."

"Guards." He responded, as respectful as them, and continued trotting with the horse.

"KING?!" you asked him, surprised.

"Oh, you can call me just Gabriel." He said, smiling at his own joke.

"Are you the... king? the king of Thorndrael??"

"Yes."

 _Oh my god. The king. The vampire. The one I gotta get the blood from, is the man in front of me._ You were surprised at how easy it was to find him and enter the castle without raising any suspicion, but you also felt guilty, after how nice he's been treating you.

_Why do I have to get his blood again? Because of Jesse. After how he acted with me now I even have to betray the trust of this nice man._

You had to be honest with you, even when you were sad because how things ended, you were still happy he wasn't locked up in that inn. And you would still do the mission, because a promise was a promise, but after how he acted, now you didn't feel like completing the missions so much. Didn't he want to do their mission on his now? Maybe you could just stay here and leave him to finish them.

Gabriel stopped the horse and helped you got down. There were a maid waiting for you in the entrance on the castle.

"Look, as you may guess, I have to attend to some things. I'll leave you with Bridget."

"Alright... ok, um... thank you, for letting me stay here."

"It's ok." He said, grabbing your hand, and kissing your knuckles. "You can stay all you want." He said and incorporated again. "See you again." You waved at him and he disappeared.

That night, Bridget leaded to your room, and showed you the other ones you could use, as the bathroom or kitchen, although she said that she would bring you the food. You took a bath in the fancy room, relaxing after the hard day, just to find some trays in your room with a lot of food. You couldn't help but think in Jesse, you didn't know if he could eat at all, and you had to remind yourself it wasn't your business. After eating, you laid on the big, comfortable, cozy bed. You've never been in a bed so soft, elegant, and sumptuous, and you fell asleep as soon as you closed your eyes.

At morning, there was Bridget already in your room, urging you to dress up, as King Reyes wanted to see you. She handed you a simple but pretty dress. You walked down the stairs and you saw Gabriel waiting for you, smiling, with his hands behind his back.

"Good morning."

"Good morning! Oh, Gabriel the castle is so beautiful!" You noticed some surprised looks in the servants around you, and then it hit you. "OH. Sorry, I, kind of forgot. Even though I'm in your castle and everything, but like... I'm sorry, King Reyes."

"Oh, no, no, no, you don't have to address me like that, you can just call me by my name, as you did before knowing I was the king."

"But-"

"No buts."

"...Ok." you said smiling.

"I wanted to show you the rest of the castle."

"Oh!" You exclaimed happily. He was really behaving very nice.

But in that moment, you heard a man yelling, and some grunts. You looked behind and saw...

_JESSE?_

Your heart sunk at the view.

He was chained up and was being hold by some guards, bleeding in his forehead and from what appeared to be a bullet wound in his shoulder. You were really surprised and agitated, unlike Gabriel, who was still calm, with his hands behind his back.

"What do we have here?" he said smugly.

"We caught him wandering in the gardens, sir. He's a werewolf."

"SURE you di- ARGH" Jesse was cut as a guard punched him in his bullet wound.

"Hmmm," Gabriel turned to you, "If I don't remember wrong, wasn't this man with you yesterday?"

"Yes."

"Did you know what he was?"

You looked at Jesse for a few seconds, and looking into his eyes, you exclaimed.

"No."

"Hmmm...” he smiled subtly. “Guards, take him away."

"Wait!" Gabriel looked curious at you. "What are you going to do with him? Are you going to killing him? Or... enslaving him...?"

"Hm,” he looked up while scratching his beard. He looked again at you and, smiling, he said: “Something in between."

"…What?"

"You'll see tonight."

"Ohh..."

He made a gesture to the guards indicating them to leave with Jesse, who didn't even look at you. You wouldn't feel guilty for lying. What would you have get by telling the truth? Getting both of you in jail? What good could that have done? You were still mad with him, but at the same time...

You brought two fingers to the bridge of your nose, and exhaled.

_It's the second time I see him chained up._

"Is Everything ok dear?"

"Yes, yes... so... what were you going to show me?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just when y'all thought that things would be smoother between reader and Jesse... hihihi  
> And, wow, that twilight reference was totally unintentional, really  
> ALSo Gabriel a.k.a dad jokes amarite?? 
> 
> Sorry for the delay guys, but I gotta say that ALL of your comments make me really happy TT^TT ily all as fuck  
> Also I haven't had a beta reader these last chapters SO SORRY IN ADVANCE FOR ANY ERROR I COULD HAVE 
> 
>  
> 
> ♡♡♡ Feedback is always appreciated ♡♡♡


	12. Chapter 12

You spent the entire day accompanied by Gabriel. He showed you most parts of the castle, and as you already expected, it was really, really big. You wondered why he was being so nice to you. Even if he was this kind, why would he pick you up and let you stay and show you the whole castle? Just because you needed help last night? Did he do this with everyone?

_Maybe he really doesn't care that one of the numerous rooms in the castle are occupied. And maybe he enjoys my company. I don't know._

It was already getting dark, and you two were walking in the enormous garden, which, even in this time of the year, it looked really amazing.

"So... have you liked it so far?"

"So much! Honestly, I've never been in a place like this. And it's everything so pretty... even the garden." You said, chuckling, and touching an orange leave, which fell with your touch. Gabriel joined in your chuckling, and said:

"I'm glad you like it. It's nice having you here. It's been a while since I talked with someone so freely." He got closer to you, standing just a few inches away from you. You noticed how dark it was already.

You didn't back up, but you didn't say anything either, which he seemed to like, because he smiled slowly. 

You felt his breathing on top of your nose, making you flushed, your heart pounding a little faster. And you, knowing that he was a vampire, knew that, without any doubt, he probably noticed the change in your breathing and could hear your heart very easily.

And then it hit you.

He was a vampire. Vampires drank blood. Vampires could kill. You were so focused on him being a king that you kind of forgot what being a vampire really meant.

_Damn._

This man could charm you in such a way that could make you forget to be on guard.

 _Is he the kind of vampire that drinks just the necessary amount, leaving the human alive? Or the one that wouldn’t care if he killed the person? Or the worst kind, the one that would just kill for fun, not even needing it?_ You wondered.

Honestly, it looked like the first option; since the beginning you've trusted Gabriel. He seemed like a good person, and the kingdom reputation wasn’t known for having frequent assassinations or the kind, that's why, even a little concerned, you stayed in place, without moving.

You looked to the ground, and he brought his hand to your cheek, caring it, what made you look up at him. He lowered his face, noses almost touching. You, without thinking, opened slightly your mouth, what Gabriel pleasingly took as an invitation. He slowly brought his lips to yours, almost touching, and finally, when you felt them lightly on top of yours, the memory of a tall, tan man, a big fire next to you and some drums playing in the background crossed your mind, making you move your face away in the last moment.

You stepped back, getting away from him, and looking at the ground, being thankful for the cool breeze of the night.

"Sorry, I..."

"It's ok." He said. You looked at him and he smiled fondly at you. "Maybe we... could take things slowly? If you pleased?"

"Oh, yeah, that, that would be fine." You said, not knowing what your intentions with him were yet.

"Should we go?"

"Yes." You said smiling.

You two walked back to the castle under the first quarter moon, Gabriel always with his hands behind his back.

"So... you ready for the show?"

"What show?" You asked confused.

"Remember when you asked me this morning what was I going to do with your friend?"

"Oh... yes... he, he is not my friend though. Not anymore, at least."

Gabriel smiled subtly, unnoticed even by you.

"Then maybe you are going to enjoy this night."

He leaded you to a closed, rounded arena-like, probably used to make competitions and duels, but this one looked a little different, as it wasn't, in the first place, outdoors. It, somehow, had a darker aura.

The stadium was full of torches that made pretty well visible the entire place. There were already people cheering in the stone grandstands. You sat next to Gabriel in a, of course, privileged place, where you could watch without problems, in luxurious big seats with soft pillows.

You were a little nervous, unlike Gabriel, who was really relaxed, smiling and with his legs crossed in an elegant manner, looking in front of him, waiting for the show to start.

Suddenly you heard a metal crack and saw how one of the metal doors opened to reveal a really big, buffed man with a sword as big as his entire arm.

Another door opened, but no one got out of it, not at least so fast. Seconds later, you heard a thud followed by a grunt, and a person falling in front of the arena.

Of course, you recognized in no time that person, breaking your heart to see Jesse like this. That thud was probably a kick, forcing him to enter the arena, and consequentially, making him fall to the ground.

All the people started to laugh and boo at him, and in that moment, you felt so bad for him you could even feel physical pain in your chest. You heard a light chuckle next to you, different from the vulgar villagers. You looked at Gabriel just to see him amused looking at Jesse. You looked back at him, he was already on foot, looking everywhere, when he found you next to Gabriel, in the luxurious, comfortable seats.

And your heart started to pound faster. You thought about what he could be thinking about you right now. Maybe he was angry? He felt betrayed? He despised you know? Maybe he felt disgust for you? Seeing you next to Gabriel, while he was being treated like an animal... He couldn't be thinking anything good about you, you assumed.

"FIGHT!" yelled a man at him, throwing him a sword, what made him lose eye contact with you. He leaned to get the sword, but he didn't do any movement.

Suddenly, the big man charged against him, and your heart stopped completely, but Jesse dodged him with ease, making you lose the air you were holding.

The man kept charging against Jesse and he wouldn't do anything but dodge, what was making him gain more boos from the multitude, who wanted to see a good show. You were nervous, in tension, looking in front of you, unlike Gabriel, whose head was pointed to the combat, but was looking at you out of the corner of his eye, interested in your reactions, smiling smugly.

The man, already angry for not being achieving anything, charged once again against Jesse, but this time, not only Jesse dodged him again, but grabbed him by his arm and put his foot in front of him, making him fall to the ground. The crowd started to laugh, and Jesse instantly looked at you.

You tried to interpret his gaze. You believed he wanted to know if you saw that move. You didn’t want to venture so fast, but you truly believed he was trying to see if it impressed you, or made you laugh.

You heard and angry grunt from the man standing up, charging with his sword again, but Jesse stopping him with his own. The man was way much bigger than Jesse, but he was managing him rather well. With every movement Jesse did, he always looked at you, expectant of your reaction.

But you didn't understand why he was doing this. First, he wanted to part away, then he didn't even look at you in the castle, now, seeking for your attention...

Now that you were calmer, after seeing that this guy wasn't a threat to him, you regained your composure, accommodated again in your seat, a put the most condescending face you could, trying not to show Jesse any emotion, you didn't want him to know that you actually cared.

Finally, with repeatedly thrusts with his sword, Jesse was making the man walk backwards, making him fall in his knees, and with a final thrust, he threw flying his opponent’s sword some feet away. He raised his arms as a signal of surrender, while he crowd were yelling "end him" all at once.

Your heart started to pound a little faster again, but you tried to conceal it. But it finally relieved you when Jesse threw his own sword to the ground, gaining again some boos from the people. He looked directly at you again. You hold his gaze for a few seconds, and then looking aside, as if you didn't care about him. He then walked back to the door where he came.

After that, there was more duels to which you didn't pay attention. Your thoughts came back to Jesse. This time he was wearing just the pants he had bought for himself, and nothing else, no shirts or jackets, no boots, and of course no gun. He had this time another metal collar, which you assumed it was made of silver, of course, but this time it didn't have spikes on it, at least. He had another metal bracelets in both of his wrists and feet, just to restraint his transformation.

"Are you enjoying this so far?" Asked suddenly Gabriel.

"Yes, yes..." you hurried up to say, as one of the duelists cut his opponent throat with his sword. "Though... a little barbarous..."

"That's what they are." He said without looking at you.

"…Are all of them..."

"Yes. Well, no, not everyone, but yes, most of them are werewolves."

After that, every night you would come with Gabriel to watch the duels, it was apparently something common in the Kingdom, and every night, you could notice how Jesse was becoming more and more... wild, in the combats. He started to look excited, he even looked like he was enjoying it. He had become people's favorite, now he even smiled and cheered at them. About you, you had become closer to Gabriel too. And Jesse, even though he only saw you every night at the arena, could notice that in the way you moved around him, how close you sat next to him, how you touched him sometimes, and how you talked to him, sometimes very close to his ear. It made his blood boil.

It's not like you had forgot your missions with the witch, but you were getting used to your daily routine, living with Gabriel, watching Jesse fight.

This night, the crowd cheered and screamed and even the ladies threw roses to the arena, and without looking there, you already knew that Jesse was about to appear. Not a second after, you saw him walking confidently at the center of the arena, with his arms raised, welcoming the multitude.

 _Ugh, what is this idiot even doing. What a prick._ You thought, rolling up your eyes.

Jesse leaned to take one of the white roses some girl had thrown to him, and he blew a kiss to her, the girl yelling back at the gesture.

_UGHHHHHH_

Right after that, Jesse looked at you smugly.

_WHAT?_

_…_

_WHAT THE FUCK?_

_IS HE... IS HE TRYING TO MAKE ME JEALOUS?_

You could play that game too. You huffed and, with your eyebrows raised, without breaking contact with Jesse, you curled up next to Gabriel, resting your head in his neck and one of your hands in his chest. Gabriel smiled at you and kissed you in your forehead.

Suddenly the smug expression disappeared from Jesse's face, and you smiled at that.

_Hm, what is he, angry? Now? What were he expecting me to do?_

Satisfied with his reaction, you reincorporated in your seat and leaned back. You thought that the combat where about to start, when Jesse talked, much to your surprise.

"I will dedicate my tonight's victory, to the lady sitting up there" he said, pointing at you with the white rose. All the people stared at you. You widened your eyes and looked at Gabriel, who just shrugged smiling at you. You looked back at Jesse, you snorted and looked aside, rejecting his "gift". The people got excited at the show you two were giving, and Jesse just laughed slightly.

"Then, I'd like to make a deal with you, m'lady."

"I am not interested." You said with condescending voice.

"I just want to ask for a kiss, if I win tonight."

The crowd went crazy at that. You rejected him once again, and this time, people started booing again, but towards you. You looked at Jesse, who was smugly looking at you, knowing that he had the people's favor.

It's not like it would make really a difference if your accepted or not, but you didn't like people booing at you, and you were mad, mad at the people, mad at Jesse's stupid behavior, mad at how hot he still looked to you-

_Ugh_

"Alright." You simply said.

People started cheering again, and without any more waits, the combat started. As you had seen these last days, Jesse were starting to behave more erratic, more animalistic, and you didn't like where that was going. At one point, Jesse's sword broke, and he threw the rest of it to the ground, but it didn't look like that upset him, all the opposite indeed, with a swift move, he ripped his opponent's sword too and threw it away as well. Jesse then punched him so hard he fell to the ground. You could see blood coming out of the mouth of the man in the ground, he stood up again with effort, but Jesse, smiling to the crowd, just punched him again against the ground.

You didn't like this. Not at all.

Jesse looked at the man in the ground and walked towards him.

"I-I surrender! I su- I surrender!!" he said, spiting blood with each word he said, raising his hands, still in the ground. But Jesse kept walking towards him.

"PLEASE don't! Please!" The man cried. Jesse straddled him and started to punch him with force without stopping.

You were getting nervous. Really nervous. You wondered with anxiety when he was going to stop. You looked at him and noticed...

_Jesse?_

He had pointy nails. Pointy nails like the time he got shot in the forest, before the witch stepping in.

He kept punching the other one, who just screamed and cried and mumbled "pleases" and "stops". If he kept like this he was going to kill him with just punches.

It looked like he was going to give him a last punch, as he raised slightly more his arm, and stretched his fingers, curving them.

_Curving them?_

_Oh no_.

He wasn't going to give him a final punch, he was going to slice his throat with his claws.

Just when he was about to lower his hand you stood up and yelled:

"JESSE DON'T!"

He stopped in the act, looking at you surprised. Now that he was looking at you, you could see his amber eyes and pointy fangs. He looked back at the man under him, almost dead, and the again at you. His expression was a mix of surprise, embarrassment, confusion... He stood up and looked at the man, who was barely breathing You thought he was regretting what he did, when the crowd started to yell:

"KISS HER! KISS HER! KISS HER!"

And slowly, as the people got louder and louder, the hateful smug expression came back to his face.

You didn't have any choice but to get down to the arena, so you walked down towards him, with him looking at you with that stupid smugly face. When you were in front of him, he looked taller and more intimidating than how you remembered him, what made a chill run through your spine; he noticed it and it looked like he liked it. He looked down at you smiling. You couldn't be more serious right now, this wasn't funny to you and even less after the way he just acted.

"C'mon darling, don't be so serious, it’s just a little kiss." He said with a low, raspy voice, which only you could hear. He brought his arm to your lower back, and with a swift motion, he got you closer to him, making the crowd whistle like stupids.

You couldn't believe what had been of him. You had truly tried to understand him, but all his actions were so confusing.

_How did he become like this??_

You looked at him with disgust.

"Oh c'mon... I thought you used to like it." You opened you mouth to protest, angry because of his stupid comment, but he took that moment to kiss you. You felt the familiar lips on yours, and you automatically closed your eyes with force, furrowing your eyebrows. And you couldn't help but feel sad about the fact that you wanted to keep kissing him, but not under these circumstances, not like this. The kiss was furious, heated, very alike to the lately behaviors you’ve seen in him. Unlike you, he didn't close his eyes, instead, he was looking down at you with lust in his eyes, he wanted to see you while he kissed you, he wanted to amuse himself seeing how his lips abused yours. He felt a boner grow in his pants.

You heard the crowd applaud and yell and whistle like savages. You tried to break the kiss with Jesse, but he wasn't willing to let you go so fast, and restrained you against him, kissing you fiercer.

The action of restraining you into place, only made his boner grow bigger, and he grunted as he bit your lower lip, then kissing you deeply again.

So, you kicked him in the balls with your knee.

As simple as that. He broke the kiss immediately and brought his hands to his genitals, bending over, and because you were mad at him, you punched him with the palm of your hand in his nose, making him throw his head back. He fell to his knees and looked down. You saw how, somehow, you made him bleed in the nose. You were about to go when he finally looked at you, nose bleeding, staining his lips and chin. He smiled in a lascivious way, and licked the blood from his lips, never breaking eye contact with you.

That was enough for you. You turned back and got out the arena, coming back to the castle, not even waiting for Gabriel.

_This ends tonight._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)  
> Omg what did you guys think of this chapter??? Lol
> 
> ♡♡♡ Feedback is always appreciated ♡♡♡


	13. Chapter 13

Under the full moon, you waited in the dry gardens for the show to end. You had to talk to Gabriel. You had to thank him for his kindness but tell him that you had to go. You would explain him everything. What happened in Gaban’s inn, the pact with the witch, the favors she asked of you… the reason why you came here in the first place. You were sure that if you explained to him he wouldn’t mind giving you just a little of blood.

But you waited and waited, and the shouting from the arena didn't seem to stop, what gave you more time to think.

You recalled the image of Jesse without his shirt, smiling down at you, his arm around your back, his lips abusing yours…

You shook your head trying to forget. But you couldn’t. That was the main reason you wanted to leave. It looked like the man you once met was no more. And it also looked like he was happy here, so you shouldn’t worry.

You had to leave and forget, and you will keep going as you always did.

As you were waiting you thought that maybe, perhaps, you should tell Jesse too. You had no reason to tell him, but even like that, you kind of wanted to, maybe for the fact that you actually still cared about him. It was like a way of closing this matter forever. You were deciding about going or not, when you finally stood and headed to the dungeons were the fighters stayed.

You went to the dungeons, where a guard denied you the entrance. You told him that you just wanted to visit one of the prisoners, but he wouldn’t let you enter. You said that you were with the king, his guest, and he said that he knew, and that his orders were specifically about not letting you go inside. That really confused you but decided not to think too much about it. You turned away, as if you had given up, when suddenly turned back again and punched him in the nose, applying a chokehold immediately, he struggled to get free, until he started to feel weaker and weaker, fainting eventually. You look down at the guard in the ground.

_Gabriel will understand._

You walked slowly, looking to both sides, looking for the familiar wolf.

“Hey pretty!!!” Said one of them

“Pretty face come here!”

You were followed for more whistling and vulgar and gross commentaries.

Finally, at your right, you saw Jesse sitting at the end of his dungeon.

“I knew you were coming.” He said smugly.

“Of course.” You said. He probably smelled since the very first step in the dungeon.

You stood some feet away from the cell. Just looking at him. He stood up and got closer to the cell, grabbing the bars.

“Why are you here?”

You didn't answer.

Due to your lack of answer, he said: “Why don't you come inside here and...” He made a motion where he was thrusting his pelvic against the cells bar.

You narrowed your eyes at him and scoffed.

Looking at your disappointed face, he stopped and looked at the ground, he looked somewhat regretful. Just like when you shouted him to stop back in the arena.

“I'm sorry.”

You looked at him with curiosity. He was such a mess of confused signals...

“I'm gonna leave.”

He suddenly looked at you surprised.

“What?”

“You heard me.”

“You are... You are going to take me with you... right?”

You put on a confused face.

“Why should I? You look happy here, you-”

“That's not true!”

You looked at him.

“Jesse what the hell? I'm fed up. You wanted to leave me, then you get arrested, then you ignore me, then you start enjoying the combats, hell if you did, then you start hitting on me again??? Why are you so difficult, I don't understand anything, ANYTHING! Are you even in your right mind? The way you were fighting with that man, you were about to kill him-”

“I KNOW! I KNOW OK? It just, happens to me, it just, it just- it’s like this, you know, you, these things...”

You looked at him confused, you didn't understand. You just wanted some fresh air, to be under the full moon again...

The full moon.

You gasped.

_THE FULL MOON._

_OF COURSE._

_HOW COULD I FORGET._

“I can't help it! I- I-, I just-”

“Jesse I'm so sorry!”

“No, please, wait, don't go.”

“No Jesse, I mean, I'm so sorry, I forgot.”

“What?”

You couldn’t believe it. You forgot about how the full moon affected werewolves. The closer the moon was to be full, werewolves would get more aggressive and would behave mostly by instincts. How in heaven could you forget. It was time since you dealt with a werewolf, and you didn't have the problem with the full moon.

You sighed and got closer to the bars and rested your head there.

“Y/n?”

You couldn't leave Jesse here. You'll have to help him escape.

Again.

You looked up to him again, and grabbing the bars, you spoke:

“Ok, we have to get you out of here.”

He smiled again and, he stretched his arms through the bars and grabbed your face and pressed it again the bars, and gave you a little kiss. You pulled back back instantly and looked at him offended.

“Don’t do that”

He looked at you worried, and you didn't give him time to say anything.

“We gotta tell Gabe. He will let you get out of here.”

“What?”

“I said that-”

“I know what you said. But you can't be FUCKING SERIOUS.”

“Why not? What's the problem?”

“What's the problem? Are you gonna get the help of that disgusting vampire???

“Well he has been nice to me, he is a good ma-”

“He is not! He is... not what you think he is.”

“What do you mean?”

“You think he is that stupid, a smooth bitch you think he is??

“Hey!”

“He's lying y/n!”

“Why would you say that?”

“Why? Ok let me tell you, since the very beginning, he's being lying. He didn't "catch" me, around the gardens, trying to enter the castle, you know, the night that- the night that... I told you I was gonna leave-”

You felt a soft pain in your chest.

“That night, I was ambushed in one of the pubs, he ordered a dozen of guards after me, they came prepared, they knew what I was, and where I was. And then the FUCKING prick came in and shot me in my shoulder with that silver bullet.”

“But... He said that, that you... ”

“He was lying!!!”

“But why would he lie??? ”

“The hell I know? He just acted like if he didn't have anything to be with my arrest, and he was the one after all of it.”

Your heart pounded fast. Why would he do such a thing? With what purpose?

“I-I... I'm really confused right now.” You said honestly.

“We just, we need to get out of here, and kill him, and get the bl-“

“Woah, woah, woah! stop right there, we are not gonna kill him!”

“Why not???”

“Cause... cause... we actually, we don't know what he is doing and-”

“Nothing good, believe me.”

“But Jesse...”

You heard the guard waking up, so you had to hurry up and make a decision.

“…Ok. Look. I'm gonna get you out of here.” He smiled. “But we’ll decide what to do with Gabe afterwards. Ok??”

“Yeah.”

“Alright.”

You came back to the guard and knocked him out again. You took his keys and came back to Jesse's cell, opening it after trying out some of them. He got out very fast, and he hugged you. It wasn’t a lustful one, like the last one, it was more like he used to be, but even like that, you stopped yourself from hugging him back. Jesse of course noticed this, and broke the hug.

“Let’s get out of here.”

You were running to the castle thinking what to do, apparently you couldn’t trust him, after seen what he did to Jesse. Why would he lie about it? What did he want to achieve by that? But even like that, that fact alone wasn’t enough to kill him, right?

When you reached the main floor, you told Jesse to stay there, he refused, of course, but you ordered him to stay. He finally accepted, reluctantly.  

You went to your room, you thought about looking first there, as he sometimes went to your room to make a visit. And, very conveniently, there was he.

When you arrive at the entrance, he turned around with a smile.

“Y/n! I was waiting for you-” but then his face changed into a thoughtful one, for a few seconds, but got back to his smiling face. He got closer to you, and you, trying to be brave, stood there. He hugged you, as so many times, but you didn't return the hug. Suddenly, he talked softly in your ear:

“You couldn’t just stay away from him, didn't you?”

Scared, you tried to back up, but he held you into place. “Oh, god, you stink of wet dog.”

“Then let me go.”

He laughed softly,

“No, no, no, this isn’t over so soon. Not yet.”

With one hand he pulled you inside the room and with the other he shut the door. He pushed you against it and grabbed both of your wrists and placed them above your head, pinning them there with one hand, while with his other he grabbed your face, covering your mouth, sinking his fingers in your cheeks, pushing your head against the door.

“You don’t know how much I’ve dreamed about this moment.” He said sweetly, as a lover worshipping you. “The moment I would kiss your soft skin, trail my lips in your neck, taste your sweet blood…

You tried to speak through his hand in your mouth.

“What is it?” He said, as sweetly as ever, removing his hand from your mouth and placing it in your neck.

“I don’t understand… I… why did you, why… there a lot of things I don’t understand…”

“I bet.”

You looked at him jaded and he laughed softly.

Sighing, he started explaining: “I knew since the moment I met you, that you were with a werewolf, you stank of it. And of course, I knew that you knew he was a werewolf, it takes no more than a look to your clothes, your gun, your hands…” he said squeezing lightly his grip in your wrists, “it was obvious you hunt as a living, of course you would know you were with a werewolf. But of course, werewolves are chased, even in this kingdom of mine, and I’ve been really bored. See, I used to go to this little village and play with some girls, blaming it to the werewolves afterwards… but it was turning reeeeeeally boring.”

“So, I thought, what can I do to you? I wasn’t even sure by that time, but I bet I could play something out of you. But then that friend of yours made it really easy when he told you something that, apparently, broke your “friendship” with him. Yes, if it wasn’t for him, this wouldn’t have been this easy. Or this interesting,” he said smiling, showing you his pointy fangs. “And when I saw you crying that night, alone in the forest, I knew this was going to be fun. You see? Right after that, my little “business” that I had to attend, you remember? Was arresting your dog. I wanted to see how fast could I break a trust relationship, and, well, you didn't disappoint, when you looked him straight to his eyes, and said that you didn't know he was a werewolf, just so you could save yourself, I almost fall to the floor laughing. Seeing a relationship so broken because of selfishness, ahh, that’s my favorite.”

That wasn’t like that, that wasn’t why you did it, you wanted to correct him, but he didn't give the chance, as he kept talking.

“But I knew that you still felt something for him,” he said, lower, almost for himself, and then looked at you again. “So, my plan was to see how much I could charm you to see how fast you would forget him. It… kind of piss me off that I didn’t quite achieve it.”

You tried to kick him, but with his own leg he stopped yours, he pushed you away from the door just to push you again against it with force.

“I. Haven’t. Finished. Yet… dear.” He said muttering the words, very close to your face.

“It was really sad,” he kept talking, “that you decided to end our little funny game, I had a lot of things planned for you… Yes, it is sad… but I guess is sadder to you. You see? I can always come back to small villages, charm the ladies, play with them, and then kill them slowly,” he said, stretching the last word. You breathed faster by your nose.

“But you? I guess this is the end for you.” He smiled again.

He leaned over you and touched your neck with his lips, kissing them slightly.

“Yeah, really sad…”

Without any more warning, he sank his sharp teeth into your neck, piercing through your skin with no difficulty at all. You screamed against his hands, which was muffling your noise.

“Ah… yes, that’s it my dear,” he said with half lidded eyes and mouth stained with blood, “scream for me.” Your tears dropped and wetted Gabriel’s hands.

Before he would hide his face in your neck again, you hit the hardest you could his nose with your forehead, catching him of guard and letting you free. You drew your gun and shot him. You shot him twice in non-vital places, but it looked like he didn’t even feel it, because he charged against you and throwed a punch to your hand holding the gun, which dropped to the floor, and another to your face. You protected yourself lifting your arm in the last moment. It felt like a metal bar just hit you with force, but you couldn’t afford even just a second to cry the pain. You kept protecting yourself with your arms as he kept punching you. You couldn’t do anything else but cover yourself, if you tried something else, he would for sure knock the hell out of you. Suddenly, the door of the room opened from a kick and Jesse stepped inside. Surprising both Gabriel and you. You couldn’t even feel relieved as Jesse didn't give you the time after plunging against him. Gabriel would have liked to take you as a hostage to avoid receiving harm from Jesse but you acted before him and kick him in his stomach, pushing him away from you. Next thing Gabriel could see, was Jesse about to punch him.

Now it was a duel against two beasts, each one of them punching and dodging punches. Until Jesse suddenly throwed him out the balcony, jumping himself after him. You run to the balcony and look to the gardens where the two of them resumed their fight.

You, as a normal person, hurried through the stairs down to meet them. After retrieving your gun of course.

When you reached the gardens you saw Gabriel laying in the ground and Jesse on top of him, punching him fiercely. This time was Gabriel’s turn to just cover himself with his arms. As you got close you saw the animalistic features on Jesse’s face again, and you looked under him, Gabriels’s face already bruised and scratched.

“Jesse that’s enough.”

He stopped obediently, (much to your surprise) but looked at you reluctantly. You left to grab some rope and brought it to the two men, throwing it to the ground. Without saying anything, Jesse stood up and tied Gabriel’s hands around a skinny tree.

Finally Jesse stood up next to you, looking down at him. Gabriel was smiling but had a painful expression in his face as well.

You took out the phial from your bag and the knife you kept inside your boot. You knelt next to Gabriel and rolled up his coat’s sleeve, exposing his cold skin to the two of you. With a quick motion, you made small, deep cut in his arm, a stream of blood sprung from the wound.

While you filled the phial, you couldn’t help but notice the intense gaze of Gabriel on you, smiling creepy at you.

Once you were done, you put the phial inside your jacket and you look at him. He is still smiling, and even though he’s tied up, you feel a chill run through your spine.

“It’s time (y/n). You have to kill him.” He said taking the gun from your belt and handing it to you. You took it indecisively between your hands, and looked at it, and then at Gabriel. He was finally serious, but calm at the same time. Maybe he understood it was his last moments. If he had to go, he’d do it elegantly, as everything he did.

You finally aimed at him, gun pointing at his head. You stood there a few seconds, convincing yourself to pull the trigger.

But you finally lowered your arm.

“I can’t do it.”

Jesse sighed frustrated and took the gun from your hands.

“If you can't do it I'll do it for you.”

“No, Jesse-”

“Trust me (y/n), look aside and everything will be over soon.” He reassured you.

He then aimed at Gabriel, who looked back at him with the same expression as before. You looked aside just how Jesse had told you, waiting for the gun shot noise, Jesse looked at you and saw how you finally complied, and then back at the vampire, and narrowed his eyes.

And he shot.

But the bullet didn't hit its target.

“(Y/N)!” yelled Jesse, after you pushed away his hand in the last moment.

“I'm sorry but I can't let you do it!”

The bullet impacted next to Gabriel's head, in the trunk he was tied up, making him jump in his place, widening his eyes.

“Why not?”

You didn't answer back.

“Just tell me why not!”

You looked at Gabriel; he was already meeting your gaze. After recovering from the sudden shot, he was already calm again, but no trace of his smugly smile anymore. He was serious, looking at you with, rather interest, you would say, waiting for your response.

“I don’t know…”

Jesse brought one hand to his face, exasperated. He didn't understand why you were hesitating. He lied to you, he attacked both of you, he hurt you, he wanted to kill you… and even like that you wanted to save him.

Jesse looked at you out the corner of his eyes.

He couldn’t help but to think that maybe you still felt something for him. He could always ignore you and just put a bullet in the vampire’s head. But that would upset you of course, and he didn't want to fuck up more than he already did.

Jesse sighed resigned, and said:

“Ok… what do we do then?

You thought a few seconds until you shouted:

“Mercy!” you said at loud. Both Gabriel and Jesse put on a surprised face.

“You called?” She said, with his optimistic voice, as always, appearing suddenly from nowhere.

“I got your blood, but I need a favor to ask.”

“You know you can but- oh...”

She looked between you and Jesse,

“Something changed between you two...”

You looked to the ground while Jesse kept looking at her.

“Anyway! As I was saying, you can ask me for anything! You just need to pay, of course. What's the matter then?”

“This... um...” you said, trying to recover from the calling out, “vampire, here... I don't want him to kill again, so I, I don't know, I hoped you could do something about him.

“Why don't you just kill him?” she said casually.

Jesse lifted his eyebrows and crossed his arms, agreeing for once with the witch.

“I... I think... I think he is not, uhh… how should I put this...” You knew inside of you that he had something, something that was worth keeping, but you just couldn't put it into words yet.

“Who cares, this is what I want, and I'll pay you.”

“Ok, ok.” Said Mercy, smiling and showing her palms as an apology.

She then started to think about all the options she could give you.

“Mmmmm, there are a lot of thing I could do...” She said with her hand in her chin.

You sighed and rubbed the bridge of your nose, tired. “Please just give me the cheapest.”

“Alright, How about this. I'll give him a certain number of lives, that will decrease every time he kills somebody. And if he spends all of them, he dies. Do you like that? So, just tell me the number of lives you want to give him. Oh, of course, the higher the number of lives the higher the price.

“Just give him one. You already gave him an opportunity.” Said Jesse.

You thought about it. You should give him just one. After all, you were doing this so he wouldn’t kill again. If you gave him the opportunity to do it more times, what was the point?

But.

Accidents happens after all.

“I want to give him 3.”

“(Y/n)?? Perfect. Just. Perfect. That’s it, give him 3 lives so he can kill the three of us as a revenge.”

“Bold of you to assume the vampire could even place a hand on me.” Said casually the witch.

“I can’t believe you are gonna pay for this.” Said Jesse still with his arms crossed.

“And what’s it to you?” You said looking at him with narrowed eyes.

Jesse opened his mouth to answer, but closed it immediately, knowing that he was in no position to opine, after what you had done for him and what he had done to you.

You look down to Gabriel, who tries to hold your gaze, but for some reason, he finally gaves in and look away. You finally turn to mercy and nod to her.

The witch knelt next to Gabriel and placed her hand in his neck. You noticed an orange shine coming from under her hand, when you heard a muffed sound from Gabriel. You looked at him and he had a painful expression on his face, showing his fangs and eyes closed, trying to conceal the pain.

When Mercy took away her hand, you saw three marks in his neck, which resembled to the gills of a shark, still shining, but fading away little by little.

“There you go!” Said Mercy, this time talking to Gabriel. “Every time you kill someone, a mark will disappear. I’d be concerned if I were you when only a mark is remaining…” she said, smiling, as always. “Well, let’s talk about business then.”

“You’ve given me the two things I’ve asked you so far. You probably know, but there is three more left, plus today’s favor.” You nodded. “Ok, I see you are taking this very well. That’s how I like it. So, the next thing you’ll have to get for me, it’s a shield.”

You nodded, “Ok… doesn’t seem difficult.”

“It’s owner it’s the king of Eichenwald.”

“Oh god tell me it’s not another vampire.” You said bringing a hand to your face.

“No, he’s human. But I don’t think that’ll make it any easier.” She chuckled enigmatically.

“Ok…”

“Ah, by the way!” mercy exclaimed looking at Jesse’s outfit, “maybe you’ll need this.” She snapped her fingers and Jesse’s clothes dropped in front of him.

“Hey! My stuff!” he said happily.

“And because I’m feeling generous…” Mercy snapped again her fingers, and all metal restraints disappeared from Jesse’s body.

“Hmm, maybe you’re not as bad as I thought.” Said Jesse to her.

“Well, I wouldn’t make up my mind so fast about that.”

You decided to ignore her last comment. With the corner of your eyes, you saw Jesse dressing himself.

“Well, until next time!” She said, suddenly disappearing from there, leaving you alone with the werewolf and the vampire.

You looked again to Gabriel; he was hunched in his place. You knelt next to him, and he lifted his head to look at you. You tried to interpret his face. He didn't look angry, but calm wouldn’t be the word to describe it either. He was rather tired, resigned to his new fate.  

“I want to believe in you.” He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “I know you’re not that bad.” Jesse scoffed. “I know you’ve done bad things to, like, everyone but, I know you did things for other people too, you helped them, which I don’t really understand why would you do it, after knowing… what you do… but the thing is that you did it. Which makes me believe that you could be a better person. I’ve seen how you treat your servants and how you take care of the kingdom, you actually care about it. But at the same time… you wouldn’t have any problem with killing some of them from time to time… but that’s not a problem anymore. So I… I thought that maybe, now that you wouldn’t kill, you could focuse in-“

“That won’t change him.” You looked up at Jesse. “He won’t kill anymore, right… because he can’t, but he would do it again if he could.”

“I know, that’s why the spell.”

“Then why are you giving him the talk, he won’t kill anymore, alright, that’s it.”

You stayed some seconds in your position until you finally stood up.

“I know, I just…” You looked down at Gabriel again, he was still looking at you with furrowed eyes. “I still want to believe in you… Goodbye Gabriel.”

You turned away and without saying anything else you headed to the horses.

It hadn’t pass not even two seconds when you heard steps behind you. You decided to ignore Jesse and do what you meant to do. When you reached the posters with the horses, he finally talked:

“So… now what?”

“Excuse me?” You said while untying your horse, without turning to look at him.

He smiled awkwardly , scratching his neck. “I said.”

“I know what you said. I was just wondering why the fuck would you say that.”

He was taken aback from the boldness of your words. He knew it wasn’t time for games, so he went straight to the point. “Look, I’m sorry… I…”

“…You what? Why are you apologizing?”

“For everything…”

“Huh… for everything…” you repeated his unsatisfactory reply. “Ok. It’s fine.”

“Really?” He got happy instantly.

“Yeah, sure. Anyway, you’re free now. Again.  Can do whatever you want. I’ll look for the next mission.”

“I’ll go with you of course!”

“Of course?” you asked. He didn’t reply anything. “I thought you wanted to leave, and you would’ve if nothing had happened with Gabriel.” You crossed your arms. He couldn’t actually believe that, after what he did, he could come back as if nothing had happened, you thought.

Jesse’s face distressed again.

“About that…” You waited patiently for his words, expecting more bullshit for answers.

“I didn’t want to leave you.”

You were prepared to snap back at him with whatever response he told you, but something about his tone made you think twice, and listen to what he wanted to say.

“God-” He laughed looking at the night sky, “Of course I didn’t. It was the last thing I would have desired. But…” he looked at the ground this time. “After what that demon said, Genji, that I-”

“Wait,” you interrupted him. “What?”

Jesse looked at you confused, but resumed his words. “After what Genji said, that I was dangerous, that I couldn’t protect you… that I’d eventually hurt you… you- you remember right? After that… I couldn’t stop thinking that maybe… he was right. I couldn’t protect you that night with the demon of the forest. If that Genji hadn’t been there, you could’ve died. And I couldn’t have avoided it. I wasn’t able to tell there were more demons than one that night either, I couldn’t associate his smell with the one of the ghoul I-”

“You think you’re my fucking tool? My babysitter?”

Jesse looked at you surprised. “I-“ he started, but you interrupted him.

“Don’t! Shut up. Just… shut up for a moment…”

You walked some steps away until you finally dropped yourself to the ground and sat there, holding your head with your hands in your knees. Jesse run to your side and sat next to you, he placed his arms around your shoulders and shook you slightly, so you would look at him.

“I can’t believe this is all because of that…”

Jesse didn’t respond.

“So… you didn't get tired of me?”

“What? No!”

“That’s what I thought that happened… why you wanted to leave…”

“How could I-” but he stopped himself, noting that he didn't give you much choice to think otherwise. “I’m sorry.”

He hugged you and this time you didn't hesitated in reciprocate it. He squeezed you slightly and you noticed the sniff he always did when he hugged you, and you couldn’t help but feel a happiness you had already forgotten, having again the happiness you once lost.

“So, what you said that night… the night that… well you know what night. What you said… was it for real”

“I wouldn’t lie about that.” He said with his face hid in your neck.

“But like, did you mean, love like, I love cheese, or love like, love love?”

He chuckled and leaned back just to cup your face with his hands, his thumbs under your eyes: “Love love.”

And in that moment, you couldn’t help but grin like and idiot, and you looked aside embarrassed. But Jesse, turned your face back to him, getting closer to you, noses almost touching, until he finally pressed his lips on yours.

When you two finally stopped kissing, he said:

“I have a boner.”

“…”

“…”

“You really know how to kill the mood huh?”

“Oh-Well, I, I’m sorry I’m still-”

You laughed nonchalantly “Shut up! I’m just joking!” This was the Jesse you knew. Your Jesse.

You stood up to the horse.

“So…uhh”

“No, don’t let my happiness fool you, I’m still mad at you.”

“What??”

“Don’t worry. I’ll forget about it eventually.”

“But like, this will have consequences or something?”

“Yeah.”

“For example?”

“For example, no sex for tonight.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the laaaaaate update hehe  
> What do you guys think of this chapter? It's quite longer than the others but I couldn't divide it anywhere sooo
> 
> ♡♡♡ Feedback is always appreciated ♡♡♡


	14. 14

You galloped slowly, the night calm and coolly, the cold breeze feeling nice in your face, reddened from some time ago. It had started to get colder lately as winter was near.

Jesse had been quite since he mounted behind you, but you could feel his gaze piercing you from behind, sending a chill through your spine. You trusted Jesse, but you couldn’t help but feel creeped out sometimes by some of his behaviors.

He let out a really long sigh, like if he was troubled by something, trying to catch your attention. Knowing what it was about, you ignored him. After some minutes, Jesse tried to change his strategy.

You suddenly felt his strong hands tracing your pelvis and stopped there, holding you into place. But something about the sensation was different. You looked down and saw his pointy nails pressing against your skin.

“Watch it.”

You warned him. But he didn’t move his hands away and instead you felt now his face got near your neck, sniffing, and then suddenly a bite. It wasn’t harmful at all, it was done gently, with the right amount of force so it wouldn’t hurt, but strong nonetheless.

“MAN- what the hell??”

Jesse didn’t answer, but he stopped the bite and sniffed you shoulder next, biting you in there this time but softer than the last.

“I think I made myself clear back there.”

“Do you...” he started but got lost sniffing you behind your ear again. “…do you really expect me to stop, in this night of the month, with you in front of me?”

“Well yes, that's what I said.”

Jesse leaned over you and stroked your shoulders, tracing down your arms until he wrapped his hands around yours... and suddenly jerk them so you did the same with the horse's reins, stopping the horse in the spot.

“Jesse!” You shouted angrily.

He got down the horse and lifted his hand to help you get down too.

“No.” You said still in your ground.

“C'mon.” He said waving his arm once, urging you to get down. You didn’t say anything and instead crossed your arms, looking defiantly at him.

He sighed. “Alright.” He said. And started getting naked.

“Hey, hey, hey, what are you doing? you just said-”

“Look, honey, I need to get all this- adrenaline out one way or another. So... you know what that means...”

“...No, I don’t.”

“I’m going to go wild. With... my other form.”

“...what do you mean wild.”

“Jesus, I don't know, run, hunt, bite a tree, whatever.”

“Yeah, uh, no, no, no, that's... the least we need now.”

Jesse looked at you tiredly.

“Aww…”  you felt pity for him and got down the horse. You cupped his face and scratched his sides.

“The worst thing about this, is that you DO want to do it, you're aroused, I can tell those things.”

“Well yeah! But I'm still mad.” You said stopping the scratching.

“But why? I know I fucked up very stupidly, but we already talked about that!”

“It's just that- I can't believe you did all of that just because of that stupid demon. You got your own conclusions, and you decided things on your own without even talking to me.”

“I know… now that I come to think of it, it was very stupid.”

“Yes, it was. And it wasn’t just, a small thing you know? I mean-”

“I took a really big decision, and it wasn’t the best of them, and it wasn’t my right to decide for the two of us… yeah it was dumb and the least thing I should have done was to at least talk to you about it. Even though it was stupid just to ask, but I should have said something.”

You two stayed like that, in silence for a whole minute, until you exhaled.

“You’re fucking right. Ahhh...ok. Ok.  I feel better now.” You looked at him. “Now that... you acknowledged that what you did was stupid, that you did horribly wrong, reaaaaaally really wrong, really bad. That you-”

“Ok! I get it, I get it, we all get it.”

You smiled and leaned over him. “Take off your clothes big boy.”

“Big boy?” he said grinning, taking off his jacket.

Grinning too, you grabbed him by his shirt and pressed him into your body, kissing him, while he struggled with his jacket, one of the sleeves stuck in his arm.

“Sh-crap...” he said in between your kisses. You decided to help him with his vest.

“Why do you wear so many clothes??”

“Aesthetic.” He simply said, finally getting rid of his coat.

“Ohh.” You expressed unimpressed.

You unbuttoned both his vest a shirt, tracing with your hands all his chest, stomach and neck, feeling his warm, toned muscles.

The next thing you felt was a piercing cold as your stomach skin was exposed to the night's cold air.

“Oh shit!” you exclaimed getting away from Jesse and lowering your hoodie again. “I forgot how cold it was...”

Jesse started at you.

“I'm starting to regret this.”

“No, no, no, no.” Said Jesse smiling, getting close to you again, pressing his body against yours. “We'll be hot in no time.” He said making you walk backwards, kissing you fiercely until your back touched a tree’s trunk.

This time, instead of trying to take off any other clothes more than necessary, he unbuttoned your pants, and you tightened your grip in his jacket shoulders. You looked down and saw his bulge already prominent in his pants, and a shudder run through your spine in anticipation.

He lifted you and you crossed your legs around his waist, leaning in the tree behind you. He pressed his crotch and rubbed against you, humming in pleasure, sinking his fingers in your hips. You smiled and kissed his jaw, licking his beard with lust in your eyes. He hummed again approvingly and lowered your pants slightly, until your spread legs would let him, and you pressed your legs together to give him more space to get them down.

“This was easier when you were wearing a dress.” He huffed, and you realised you were in almost the same posture as the first time. You would have to change that in the future. You saw Jesse’s hand get near your hem, but you stopped him, grabbing his hand.

“Wait. Wait… it’s better… if I do this… at least this time.” You said looking at Jesse’s sharp nails.”

“I can be very gentle.” He said smiling, but he let you, nonetheless.

You brought a finger to his mouth, and he opened automatically, humming as you rubbed his tongue with your finger, and he covered it in saliva.

You touched your hole slowly at first but slipped your finger with ease inside. You didn't last until you brought a second finger to his mouth, and he moaned at your taste. You abandoned his mouth, earning a whine from him, and put them both inside you, not as easy as before, and you started pumping slowly and scissoring yourself.

Jesse groaned at the sight and jerk his hips up in anticipation. Barely able to contain himself, he reached to your hand and grabbing it he started pumping you faster. You let out a choked sound at the unexpected gesture, and you watched at the bold action, as you moaned at the new sensation.

He brought your fingers to his mouth one more time, licking a third finger, tasting you in the process, and put them in your entrance. You felt a burning pleasure as the third finger stretched you and you let out another moan.

Once your three fingers where inside you to your knuckles, he pumped you slowly at first, increasing the pace with each thrust, and your moans became faster. You looked down to see him using your fingers to pump you, thrusting you, and you felt his warm forehead touch yours, and his breath as hot as yours, and you clang harder to his shoulders.

When the pleasure became more, your forehead slipped and rested in his shoulders, but he stopped a few seconds after, and you looked at him in complain.

He didn't bother to clean his fingers and instead he freed his hard cock and lined it up in your entrance. He spat in his hand and stroke his dick with it, repeating the action once again, until he finally pressed his tip in your hole.

You both hardened your grip in each other, and when his tip entered inside you, you both let out a soft ‘fuck’ at the same time, making you two chuckle at that.

When he pressed more inside you, one of your hands reached the back of his head, and tugged his hair hard, earning an approving groan for him.

“Why… why does it feel like, you’re bigger this time?” you breathed out.

“Cause I am.” He said smiling in your neck. “And you’re taking it so well, honey.” His words caused another wave of arousal run through you and you tightened around him automatically; he grunts and thrusts deeper inside you, earning another moan from you. He had been pushing slowly until now, deeper and deeper until he was at his base, and he let you a few seconds to accommodate around him.

“What, is this some werewolf stuff?” You seized the opportunity to ask.

“Yep.” He said and not a second after he started thrusting into you for real. You let out another choked moan at the sudden action and you reached with your other hand his neck, holding yourself there while he fucked you.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck…” you cried. You clawed into his back and he groaned at the feeling. You looked down and saw the big cock pumping into you, and lust clouded your mind.

You gave him a long lick from the base of his neck to his jaw where his beard started, and you felt his sharp claws pressing into your skin and his thrusts become harder.

“C’mon…” you exhaled, “you’re not giving me everything you have, don’t you?”

“Fuck…” he murmured, more for himself than to you. “Don’t ask for things you won’t be able to take.” He said smugly, lust in his voice too. However, he gave you a forceful thrust that caused a cry out of you, but you let out small ‘yes’ so he kept with this pace.

He fucked you hard and deep and you couldn’t stop moaning to even catch your breath, Jesse grunting every time he thrusted.

You wrapped harder your legs around him, pressing him even more into you every time he thrusted, earning a growl from him and some burning claw marks in your hips.

“God… baby…” Jesse growls in your neck with a raspy voice and you know you’re not gonna last much more.

When your cries start to become louder, he fucks you even faster and you are unable to think anymore, as finally you give up and cum around his cock with a loud cry.

But Jesse doesn’t stop, and he fucks you through your orgasm, and because you feel the spasms of his cock inside you, you know he’s about to cum too.

He slams his hips a few more times and with a low growl he finishes inside you. He stays there for a few seconds, both of you recovering your breath, until he finally slides off you, a string of cum falling after that.

You covered your face in his neck at the embarrassing view, and you felt his fingers stretching your sore hole gently, helping all the cum to come out.

Of course, Jesse was prepared for another round, but he knew the hard night you had today, so after cleaning you up, and putting both your pants up again, he laid you in the ground, above his coat.

“I think it’s best if we stay here tonight.” He said.

“I couldn’t agree more.” You said already with your eyes closed. He braced around you, spooning you with his whole body, protecting you from the cold and any other danger.

As you laid there with your eyes closed, already falling asleep, you felt his hand tracing your cheek, and how he pulled away some wet hair out of your forehead.

“(Y/n)?”

“Yeah?” You said sleepy.

“I love you.” You smiled.

“I love you too.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Slowly, you woke up as you felt the warm of the soft sun in your face, a rare sunlight in the usual weather. You turned around in your place, looking for another comfortable position to resume your sleeping, but you stumbled upon an unexpected object. It was firm, big... and furry.

You opened your glassy eyes and you found yourself lying next to a big, sleeping wolf.

“HOL- yo-ar-mm…” you let out a choked gibberish pointing to him, and you brought your hand to your chest, heart pumping fast. “For fucks sake!” You were able to say eventually.

The wolf lifted his head and stared at you for some seconds before giving big yawn and starting to pant with his tongue sliding out of the corner of his snout.

“NO! NO! YOU SHOULDN’T BE SO RELAXED RIGHT NOW. YOU ARE-… IN THE MIDDLE OF-…” you looked around you, looking for possible witnesses.

Suddenly, Jesse trapped you under his paw and hold you into place with his head above you.

“Jesse, really, you-”

A soft growl cut you this time. It looked like he wasn’t in the mood of transforming back or waking up whatsoever. You tried to calm yourself. You hoped this wasn’t a very used path. It probably wasn’t, if no one had discovered you yet.

You actually could calm yourself. It was a little sunny today, unlike lately. You were in a path in the middle of a forest, so there was no annoying noise like in a city on a village. The only thing you could hear were the birds chipping, some cracking of dry leaves, and the wind through the trees.

Plus, the composed Jesse's breath. Just like you've felt the other times when you woke up. But this time from a big, big wolf.

You could very well understand Jesse and his want to stay like this for a few more time. You were so relaxed now that you felt like sleeping again, but you forced yourself not to; you were loving this peaceful time together, and you wanted to enjoy it more, which you wouldn’t if you went back to sleep.

And like that, some time passed, probably half an hour, when you decided to stand up, struggling to get away from the giant paw and head above you. Jesse automatically lifted his head and started to pant again.

You sighed.

Suddenly, he stood up and you flinched at how big he was, you had seen him already like this, but every time you saw a werewolf in this form your blood froze.

But seeing his happy face made your nerves relax again. He stretched his front legs and pointed his hindquarters up, and you recognized that posture as a playful one as you had seen other dogs do.

“What?” you asked smiling, and you got a howl by response that was shut up by you at the middle.

“No, no, no, shhh.” You said covering his snout with both your hands, always wary of all the pointy fangs. But he pulled away from your hands and licked them, earning a disgusted face from you.

He howled again and you couldn’t stop him this time. He suddenly run inside the forest, and you stayed there, without really knowing what to do.

“Jesse…” you said, even though there were nobody else there apart from you and the horse.

You sighed tired and started walking inside the forest too.

As you walked, you thought it probably wasn’t a very good idea to leave the horse there alone, but you hoped no one walked and felt like having a new horse.

After some minutes walking, it surprised you how you had lost sight of him already. You tried to call him, but he wouldn’t come out of nowhere. You stopped and looked around you.

“...Funny asshole… He's probably having the time of his life.”

There were big trees everywhere, but they weren’t big enough to hide Jesse's wolf form. And yet you couldn’t find him. Where on earth Jesse had to go so you wouldn’t be able to see him in the forest?

You were lost in your thoughts when you heard a crack above you and a small branch falling in your shoulder. You shook it off you and looked above without thinking and the sight of an enormous wolf, staring directing at you with his wide, bright yellow eyes without blinking left you without any air in your lungs.

Jesse jumped in front of you making you fall with your butt in the forest ground. He pointed his hindquarters up again and waved his tail, panting happily.

“...Yes... yes...” you said normalizing your breathing again. “This must be really fun for you... right asshole?”

He howled happily again, and you didn't even try to stop him this time.

You walked back to the horse again, luckily still in his place.

“Look at him, he's already used to us and to you, specifically, like this.” You said pointing around Jesse’s whole form. “We should give him a name, he's been with us through a lot, since we took him from one of those guards in the Gaban's inn.”

You turned to looked at Jesse just to see his human naked body, looking at you. And without thinking you turned your head away.

He chuckled and said: “I can't believe you still get embarrassed to see me naked.”

“I do not.” You answered.

“Then why do you turn you head away?”

“Uhh... I don't know.”

“Now that I come to think of it, you had no problem to look at me naked when we first meet.”

“Yeah well, it was easier when you were... well... nothing, to me. Also... I was trying to look tough.” You said smiling. Jesse let out a burst of laughter. “You know how this business is, if you look small, you'll get eaten. Metaphorical and literally.”

You started to remember those days when you met him. You run into his naked, sitting figure in the cold ground, and you pointed him with your revolver directly to his brains two seconds after realizing what he was.

You remembered his scared face in that moment and how vulnerable he seemed, begging for his life, pleading you not to shoot. How coldly you ignored him as if he was nothing, and those beatings they gave him, kicks, cuts, burns... you remembered how sad he looked, tired, and resigned to his fate, to a life full of abuses. And how reserved and cautious he was the first day he stayed with you, and the first happy smile he showed you when you took care of him.

All those memories made you suddenly emotional.

“Dammit.” You whispered with wrecked voice.

You usually were stronger than this. But perhaps due to the last events in your life, you were becoming softer.

“Then, shall we go?” asked Jesse approaching you, when he suddenly saw your reddened face and wet eyes.

“Hey, hey, hey, what's wrong??” He said cupping your face.

“Nothing, it's just that...” You didn’t want to start any fuss about it now. You knew everything was ok and was meaningless to remember those things now. “You just reminded me when you were in Gaban’s inn, and… well, look at me.” You said smiling pitifully.

“Awwwwww,” he exclaimed rubbing your back, smiling. “It's ok now. And I’m ok thanks to you. And… I know you remember it like something sad but, for me, that I was already used to it, I can’t help but remember it as something good when you appeared. I don’t care about the beatings, that’s the least I remember, but those times you would let me in your room, to take care of me, or just when you would sit next to me and talk. Hell, it had been so long since I was that happy, just because you were being nice to me.”

“Jesus, Jesse, I was trying to not get too emotional about this…”

He chuckled but continued talking.

“And I knew you would leave eventually, and I was ok with it, or at least I thought I was, because when you came that night saying that you were leaving, I started to scream inside, and Jesus, I fucking begged for you to help me, even though I knew it was impossible, but you fucking did it!” He said laughing. “You fucking threatened everybody right there and broke the chains and fucking left with a naked man covered in chains with a whole guard troop after us.

And then the pact with that witch, and all those times you risked your life for me…” he had lowered his voice, regret showing in his face. “… and then I decided to leave… god I was so fucking stupid.”

You chuckled and said, “Yes, you were.” And he chuckled too. You would’ve got mad again for him reminding you about that, but all his last words had made you so happy that you didn't mind.

“Please don’t remind me that ever again.” You said smiling, nonetheless, earning another bashful laugh from him.

 

 

 

 

Half a day had passed when Jesse asked:

“So, are we going to ask for directions or…”

“No, I, for once, know where our destiny is.”

“You’ve been there before?”

“…Yep... Couple of times.”

“Much work there?”

“Uh… No, actually, it, it is… I- I just went there when I needed a break. You uh… hmm…” you swallowed. “You’re probably gonna like it.”  

“Why’s that?”

“Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…” You enlarged the sound while thinking about what to say. “Let’s just say, it a place for everyone.”

“What?”

“I mean, it’s a very tolerant place for everyone.”

“Even for werewolves?”

“Yep. Especially for werewolves.” You said lower the last part.

“So, like, do they walk around the kingdom like any other person?”

“Yeah.”

Jesse got silent for a bit.

“Puzzled?”

“Well, yeah… I knew there were places where people didn't go so hard on werewolves but, something like you’re describing…”

“If that surprises you, can’t imagine when you actually see the place.”

“Is that good?”

“Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…” you didn't know how to respond again. “Yeah.” You simply said at the end.

Jesse noticed your strange behavior but decided to wait and see the place first.

“So how is this king?” Asked Jesse after some time.

You shrugged. “I dunno.”

“What?”

“What.”

“You said you’ve been there couple of times. You sound like you know the place, but you don’t know how’s the king?”

“Yeah, that’s it.” Jesse didn't say anything, and you knew he was displeased with your answer and you sighed. “Look, even the people who lives there, there are some who hasn’t seen the king once. It’s not that weird.”

“Yeah but they probably can tell, at the very least, how their king is. Is he kind? Is he selfish? Is he-?”

“He’s good ok? I don’t know what to tell you. I haven’t heard anything bad about him. It’s not that a paid attention to that when I come here.”

“So, for what do you come here?”

“I already told you, to take a break. I, take breaks, from work, sometimes. Is that bad?”

“Ok, ok, fair enough… I guess…”

 

 

After some time riding, you said:

“Can I confess something?”

“Sure.” He said intrigued.

“Remember when you were fighting with other werewolves, and how you started becoming more violent, and uh, you would act so over confident and smug and intimidating like a fucking prick in general?”

“…Yeah…” He said unimpressed by your choice of words.

“It kinda turned me on, but I was too mad to admit it.”

“Really??” He said smiling, suddenly grabbing your hips and pushing you hard against him, earning a surprised gasp and a chuckle from you. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“I hope you do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M SO SORRY FOR THE LATE UPDATE But I hope you guys like this new chapter, I have some things already prepared for this fic and I'll try to update sooner from now on, I hope, lol
> 
> Anyway, thank you for the kind comments you guys keep sending me, those help me A LOT to keep writing, I love you guys! <3 
> 
> ♡♡♡ Feedback is always appreciated ♡♡♡


End file.
